Incommensurate Crystallography

Download or read book Incommensurate Crystallography written by Sander Van Smaalen and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2007-06-07 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For many years it was believed that translational symmetry would be the fundamental property of crystal structures of natural and synthetic compounds. It is now recognised that many compounds crystallise without translational symmetry of their atomic structures. "Incommensurate Crystallography" gives a comprehensive account of the superspace theory for the description of crystal structures and symmetries of these incommensurately modulated crystals and incommensurate composite crystals. It thus provides the necessary background for quantitative analysis of incommensurate crystals by methods in Solid State Chemistry and Solid State Physics. The second half of "Incommensurate Crystallography" is devoted to crystallographic methods of structural analysis of incommensurate compounds. Thorough accounts are given of the diffraction by incommensurate crystals, the choice of parameters in structure refinements, and the use of superspace in analysing crystal structures. The presentation of methods of structure determination includes modern methods like the Maximum Entropy Method and Charge Flipping.