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Article

The Phase Problem of X‐Ray Crystallography

NOV 01, 1989
For almost 40 years physicists thought it impossible, even in principle, to determine complex crystal structures directly from the intensities of diffracted x rays.
Herbert A. Hauptman

With the invention some 200 years ago of the goniometer, an instrument for measuring the angles between the faces of a crystal, the science of crystallography was born. The goniometer made possible the discovery of the fundamental laws of descriptive crystallography: that the angles between the facial planes are determined by the chemical composition of the crystal and that the relative orientations of the facial planes follow a simple rule, the law of rational positions.

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References

  1. 1. H. Ott, Z. Kristallogr. 66, 136 (1927).https://doi.org/ZEKRDZ

  2. 2. K. Banerjee, Proc. R. Soc. London, Ser. A 141, 188 (1933).https://doi.org/PRLAAZ

  3. 3. M. Avrami, Phys. Rev. 54, 300 (1938).https://doi.org/PHRVAO

  4. 4. D. Harker, J. S. Kasper, Acta Crystallogr. 1, 70 (1948).https://doi.org/ACCRA9

  5. 5. J. Karle, H. Hauptman, Acta Crystallogr. 3, 181 (1950).https://doi.org/ACCRA9

  6. 6. H. Hauptman, J. Karle, Phys. Rev. 80, 244 (1950).https://doi.org/PHRVAO

  7. 7. H. Hauptman, J. Karle, Solution of the Phase Problem I: The Centrosymmetric Crystal, American Crystallographic Association monograph no. 3, Polycrystal Book Service, Dayton, Ohio (1953).

  8. 8. D. Langs, Science 241, 188 (1988).https://doi.org/SCIEAS

More about the authors

Herbert A. Hauptman, Medical Foundation of Buffalo, Buffalo, New York.

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This Content Appeared In
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Volume 42, Number 11

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