Locating Atoms by Observing Crystallographic Phase

原子结构是通过测量它们如何散射辐射来确定的。然而，有一半的必要信息，即晶体相，不能从散射强度中测量出来。一个世纪以来，唯一的选择是通过对数千次强度测量的统计分析来推断相位。本项目旨在开发一种通过直接观察相来确定原子结构的方法。通过少量的观察和没有正式的测量，原子可以以皮米的精度定位。预测该方法具有直接、快速、明确、对光原子敏感、适用于纳米结构等优点，将代表晶体学的范式转变。

Atomic structures are determined by measuring how they scatter radiation. However half of the necessary information, the crystallographic phase, cannot be measured from the scattered intensity. For a century the only option has been to deduce the phase via the statistical analysis of thousands of intensity measurements. This project aims to develop a method to determine atomic structures from the direct observation of phase. From a handful of observations and no formal measurements, atoms can be located with picometre precision. It is predicted that this method will be direct, rapid and unequivocal, sensitive to light atoms and applicable to nanostructures, which will represent a paradigm shift in crystallography.