All things crystallography: introducing the ED glossary

With a dedicated electron diffractometer, ELDICO presents a highly innovative instrumentation for nano-crystallography. New approaches demand new terminology. While electron diffraction is being done for many years, ELDICO’s horizontal concept – made from crystallographers for crystallographers – will give the thing a forward push for high-quality, ultra-fast and easy-to-operate analytics.

With the ED-glossary we compiled a comprehensive list of scientific terms customarily utilized in relation to ED that would prove helpful in setting the ground and help electron crystallography to become more and more popular. We welcome improvements, addendums, corrections from the scientific community, given how new some of the aspects defined in our glossary are and that many features are still being investigated as we speak. Please do not hesitate to get in contact if you have any comments, questions, or exciting findings to share with us.

Completely engrossed in the heights of crystallographic research, it is easy for a scientist to adopt an obscure jargon composed of alien terms and strange formulas. While crystallography is not exactly a piece of cake even for the trained researcher, there are angles that even a complete outsider might enjoy investigating, understanding and analysing. Moreover, very often even the experienced crystallographers might find themselves in the position where a lexical refresh is highly welcome and valuable.

Our glossary serves this dual purpose: refresh some terms for the scientific community and create a crystallography ABC for the enthusiasts who only started investigating the field. Our aim is to establish an interactive list, where the input of our readers is of utmost importance.

The first 12 entries : Asymmetric unit, Bragg’s Law, Cryogenics, Crystal Lattice, Nanocrystal, Polymorphism, Powder material, Radiation damage, Single crystal, Structure determination, Synchrotron radiation, Twinning. 

Check it out and drop us an email if you have suggestions for future terms or interesting angles for the existing ones.