Interactive guide to diffraction ..

Interactive Tutorial about Diffraction
Interactive example : Polygon of atoms

Basic examples
Single atom
Pair of atoms
Row of atoms

Interactive examples
1D crystal builder
Polygons of atoms
Different atoms
Ewald sphere
Units

This interactive example allows the creation of a polygon of atoms and the calculation of the corresponding Fourier transform. All atoms have a distance of r=1.4Å from the origin. This example will illustrate the relation between symmetry of the atomic arrangement and the corresponding scattering pattern.

Play around with different input parameters and answer the following questions:

Describe the relationship your observe between the symmetry of the atom positions and the symmetry of the resulting diffraction pattern ?
What is special about the values n=1,2,3,4 and 6 compared to other values of n ?
What difference do you observe between neutron and x-ray diffraction patterns ?

Once you are done, click here to verify your answers.