Optical demonstration of crystallography and reciprocal space using laser diffraction from Au microdisc arrays

Abstract

Crystallography is an invaluable tool in materials science, solid state physics and protein science. Understanding crystallography requires grasping the powerful but abstract concept of reciprocal space. Here a simple but insightful experiment using a laser pointer and Au microdisc arrays to explore and illustrate Bragg diffraction and reciprocal space is demonstrated. The Au microdisc arrays were manufactured using standard semiconductor fabrication techniques. The flexibility of the array design allows the demonstration of basic concepts such as lattice and atomic form factor, but also more advanced ones such as quasicrystal and shape function.

Keywords: diffraction; education; reciprocal space; teaching.