The Nature of Light: What Hidden Behind Young's Double-Slit Experiment?

We experimentally prove that the famous single- and double-slit experimentsare the scattered-light phase transition by slit edges rather thanthe conventional view of the transmitted-light effect by slits. Thenature of the wave-particle duality of light quanta can be well understoodwith the help of the dynamic hypothesis of the quantized chiral photons havingan intrinsic dual-energy (implicit electric field energy and hiddenmagnetic field energy) cyclic exchange property. With the suggestedtheoretical framework, the experimental diffraction pattern of thesingle slit is analytically determined and numerically confirmed.

Phase retrieval of coherent diffractive images with global optimization algorithms

Coherent diffractive imaging (CDI) or lensless microscopy has recently been of great interest as a promising alternative to electron microscopy in achieving atomic spatial resolution. Reconstruction of images in real space from a single experimental diffraction pattern in CDI is based on applying iterative phase-retrieval (IPR) algorithms, such as the hybrid input–output and the error reduction algorithms. For noisy data, these algorithms might suffer from stagnation or trapping in local minima. Generally, the different local minima have many common as well as complementary features and might provide useful information for an improved estimate of the object. Therefore, a linear combination of a number of chosen minima, termed a basis set, gives an educated initial estimate, which might accelerate the search for the global solution. In this study, a genetic algorithm (GA) is combined with an IPR algorithm to tackle the stagnation and trapping in phase-retrieval problems. The combined GA–IPR has been employed to reconstruct an irregularly shaped hole and has proven to be reliable and robust. With the concept of basis set, it is strongly believed that many effective local and global optimization frameworks can be combined in a similar manner to solve the phase problem.

Comparison of a diffraction pattern of the surface spin wave beam with distribution of its magnetic potential in the plane of ferrite film

The visualized diffraction pattern of the surface spin wave beam excited by the linear transducer in tangentially magnetized ferrite film was compared with calculated in-plane distribution of magnetic potential of this beam. It is found that distribution of the wave magnetic potential and experimental diffraction pattern (distribution) of the spin wave in the film plane are in good agreement not only for the film area, where is localized main diffractive beam, but also for the area where the maxima of lower order are located.

QUALX2.0: a qualitative phase analysis software using the freely available database POW_COD

QUALX2.0is the new version ofQUALX, a computer program for qualitative phase analysis by powder diffraction data. The previous version ofQUALXwas able to carry out phase identification by querying the PDF-2 commercial database. The main novelty ofQUALX2.0is the possibility of querying also a freely available database, POW_COD. POW_COD has been built up by starting from the structure information contained in the Crystallography Open Database (COD). The latter is a growing collection of diffraction data, freely downloadable from the web, corresponding to inorganic, metal–organic, organic and mineral structures.QUALX2.0retains the main capabilities of the previous version: (a) automatically estimating and subtracting the background; (b) locating the experimental diffraction peaks; (c) searching the database for single-phase pattern(s) best matching to the experimental powder diffraction data; (d) taking into account suitable restraints in the search; (e) performing a semi-quantitative analysis; (f) enabling the change of default choices and strategiesviaa user-friendly graphic interface. The advances ofQUALX2.0with respect toQUALXinclude (i) a wider variety of types of importable ASCII file containing the experimental diffraction pattern and (ii) new search–match options. The program, written in Fortran and C++, runs on PCs under the Windows operating system. The POW_COD database is exported in SQLite3 format.

Completion of crystal structures from powder data: the use of the coordination polyhedra

Direct methods applied to powder diffraction data often provide well located heavy atoms and unreliable light-atom positions. The completion of the crystal structure is then not always straightforward and may require a considerable amount of user intervention. The heavy-atom connectivity provided by the trial solution may be used to guess the nature of the coordination polyhedra. A Monte Carlo procedure is described which, in the absence of a well defined structural model, is able to locate the light atoms correctly under the restraints of the experimental heavy-atom connectivity model. The correctness of the final model is assessed by criteria based on the agreement between the whole experimental diffraction pattern and the calculated one. The procedure requires little CPU computing time and has been implemented as a routine ofEXPO[Altomareet al.(1999).J. Appl. Cryst.32, 339–340]. The method has proved to be sufficiently robust against the distortion of the coordination polyhedra and has been successfully applied to some test structures.

X-Ray Study of Non-Periodic Si/SiGe Multilayers

ABSTRACTX-ray diffraction is applied for the assessment of structural data such as lattice mismatch and layer thickness of MBE grown Si/Si1−xGex heterobipolar transistor and double-barrier resonant-tunneling structures. Rocking curves from the former structure show distinct features which are obviously correlated to the individual layer parameters. The diffraction profile of the resonant tunneling structure is not only more complicated because of the larger number of parameters but also due to the strong interference effects resulting from the layer set-up. For a determination of the structural parameters a comparison of the experimental diffraction pattern with simulated rocking curves is performed.

Parabolas from Reconstructed Surfaces Observed in Convergent-Beam RHEED Patterns

Parabolas have been observed in the reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) patterns from surfaces of single crystals since the early thirties. In the last decade there has been a revival of attempts to elucidate the origin of these surface parabolas. The renewed interest stems from the need to understand the connection between the parabolas and the surface resonance (channeling) condition, the latter being routinely used to obtain higher intensity in reflection electron microscopy (REM) images of surfaces. Several rather diverging descriptions have been proposed to explain the parabolas in the reflection and transmission Kikuchi patterns. Recently we have developed an unifying general treatment in which the parabolas are shown to be K-lines of two-dimensional lattices. Here we want to review the main features of this description and present an experimental diffraction pattern from a 30° MgO (111) surface which displays parabolas that can be attributed to the surface reconstruction.

Synthesis and X-Ray Powder Diffraction Analysis of a New Metallic (but not Superconducting) Copper Oxide: La1.67Sr0.33Cu2O5

An ordered oxygen-deficient tetragonal perovskite compound La1.67Sr0.33Cu205 has been synthesized by solid state reaction. X-ray powder diffraction was used to characterize the material. Unit cell parameters least-squares refined from non-overlapping diffraction peaks are a = 10.8696(9)Å, c = 3.8612(6)Å and V = 456.2(1)Å3. X-ray powder data have been obtained for the experimentally observed peak positions corrected for systematic errors, the relative intensities, values of dexp and the Miller indices of both resolved and overlapping reflections. The experimental diffraction pattern was compared to computer simulated patterns calculated from the neutron crystal structure parameters and the non-oxygen-deficient LaCuO3 compound. The figure of merit is F30 = 33.8 (0.018, 48).

X-Ray Diffraction analysis of Au/Ni Multilayers

ABSTRACTX-ray diffraction is a useful method to measure the microscopic strain profile in multilayered materials. Depth profiles of strain in the modulation direction are obtained by an iterative fitting of the experimental diffraction pattern with a kinematic model. This approach was used to characterize the coherency strain profile in Au/Ni superlattices.The accommodation of coherency strain through the superlattice is dependent upon the atomic misfit between the component materials and the thickness of each layer. The depth profile of strain was determined for multilayers with repeat periodicities of 2.92 nm and 4.26 nm. A significant volume fraction of interfaces is present in these nanometric dimensioned laminates.