A New Method Of X-Ray Crystal Analysis

Abstract

The beautiful methods of crystal analysis that have been developed by Laue and the Braggs are applicable only to individual crystals of appreciable size, reasonably free from twinning and distortion, and sufficiently developed to allow the determination of the direction of their axes. For the majority of substances, especially the elementary ones, such crystals cannot be found in nature or in ordinary technical products, and their growth is difficult and time-consuming.The method described below is a modification of the Bragg method, and is applicable to all crystalline substances. The quantity of material required is preferably 0.005 c.c., but one tenth of this amount is sufficient. Extreme purity of material is not required, and a large admixture of (uncombined) foreign material, twenty or even fifty per cent, is allowable provided it is amorphous or of known crystalline structure.