Microcrystallography
X-ray diffraction techniques can be applied to determine the atomic
structure of semi-micron sized crystals. The first such study
was performed on a chemical vapor deposited diamond in the form
of a truncated icosahedron having dimensions
of 5mm.
X-ray diffraction
revealed that it had a complicated twinned texture and the thermal vibration
of atoms in the twin free domain. A small modification to the system allowed
the crystallography of microregions to be studied. The structure of a 8mm
olivine inclusion in a thin section of the Yamato meteorite has been
successfully refined. This system has allowed pioneering work in the field
of microcrystallography.
Photograph of the Yamato meteorite. A small domain structure
of an olivine region was successfully determined by X-ray crystallography.
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