Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 March 2019
The utilization and optimization of the properties of materials follows most effectively from a detailed knowledge and understanding of the positions and energetics of their constituent atoms, generally obtained from scattering/diffraction experiments involving electrons, neutrons or electromagnetic radiation. For the most part, these experiments are undertaken on individual crystals of the material, thereby preserving the resolution (and information content) of the three-dimensional reciprocal lattice. However, many of the substances of greatest academic and technical importance either do not crystallize with dimensions large enough for single-crystal studies, or display the properties of maximal interest only when present in finely-divided (powdered) form. In a diffraction experiment, the reciprocal lattice is then collapsed on to the single dimension of the 2θ scale.