X-Ray Diffraction
Concepts
Characteristics of electromagnetic waves
X-rays and applications
Visible images
Generation of X-rays and their energies
Image formation
Crystals
Growing crystals
Theory of X-ray diffraction
Bragg’s Law and its application
Crystal morphology
Solving the crystal structure
Molecular Structure and X-ray Diffraction
• The Structures of proteins and nucleic acids
at the atomic level available today come
from X-ray diffraction studies.
• Therefore it is important to understand;
– How the process works
– What kind of sample is needed
– How microscopy works and
– How do you interpret the resulting data.
Structure at the Atomic Level
• Requirements:
– Growing a crystal
– Collecting the x-ray diffraction
pattern
– Constructing and refining a
structure model to fit the x-ray
diffraction pattern.
Concepts
• X-rays - electromagnetic
radiation with short
wavelengths and high
energy.
– X-rays used in structure
studies have ? of ~1 ? or 0.1
nm.
• Like all other
electromagnetic radiation,
X-rays are absorbed,
scattered and diffracted by
matter.