Complementarities between precession electron and X-ray powder diffraction

摘要

The choice of the appropriate method for structural characterization of crystalline material is strongly dependent on the achievable crystal size. Single crystal X-ray diffraction is already developed into a standard method for crystal structure solution, followed by X-ray powder diffraction. Electron radiation provides several advantages in comparison to X-ray radiation but structure solution from electron diffraction data is a difficult task mainly due to dynamical scattering effects. In fact the application of electron diffraction is still an expert's task and is at the moment only performed within a small community. Recent developments such as electron beam precession and reciprocal space tomography turned structure analysis by electron diffraction into an approach which can be learned and performed in a reasonable time scale. Both, X-ray powder and electron diffraction are strongly complementary and provide in combination an exceptional strong tool for structure solution of nano crystalline material.