Structure

This chapter discusses the X-ray and neutron diffraction methods used to study the atomic structures of aperiodic crystals, addressing indexing diffraction patterns, superspace, ab initio methods, the structure factor of incommensurate structures; and diffuse scattering. The structure solution methods based on the dual space refinements are described, as they are very often applied for the resolution of aperiodic crystal structures. Modulation functions which are used for the refinement of modulated structures and composite structures are presented and illustrated with examples of structure models covering a large spectrum of structures from organic to inorganic compounds, including metals, alloys, and minerals. For a better understanding of the concept of quasicrystalline structures, one-dimensional structure examples are presented first. Further examples of quasicrystals, including decagonal quasicrystals and icosahedral quasicrystals, are analysed in terms of increasing shells of a selected number of polyhedra. The notion of the approximant is compared with classical forms of structures.