Electron crystallography focuses on structure determination using electron radiation, electron diffraction in particular.

​ Electron diffraction in comparison to X-ray diffraction can be performed on very small samples (nanocrystals) that would diffract the X-ray only very poorly. On the other hand, interaction of electrons with atoms in a crystal is much more complex than X-ray diffraction, and thus structure analysis using electron diffraction is computationally demanding method, and until recently, also less accurate compare to X-ray structure analysis. Our group focuses on the development of experimental and computational methods applied in electron crystallography. The core of our laboratory is a transmission elektron microscope FEI Tecnai G2 20. This microscope has a large sample tilt up to ±70°, which is crucial for examining the 3D structure of crystals. Microscope is equipped with an attachment DigiStar (NanoMegas) that generates the precession motion of the beam, and by a CCD detector Veleta for collecting electron diffraction data.

Method of dynamical refinement of electron diffraction data developed in GEC allows for locating even the lightest atoms - hydrogen atoms, shown as yellow isosurfaces in the potential map and overlaid with the structure model of paracetamol (A) and cobalt aluminophosphate (B).
Method of dynamical refinement of electron diffraction data developed in GEC allows for locating even the lightest atoms - hydrogen atoms, shown as yellow isosurfaces in the potential map and overlaid with the structure model of paracetamol (A) and cobalt aluminophosphate (B).

 

Method of dynamical refinement of electron diffraction data developed in GEC allows for locating even the lightest atoms - hydrogen atoms, shown as yellow isosurfaces in the potential map and overlaid with the structure model of paracetamol (A) and cobalt aluminophosphate (B).