My early work on convergent-beam electron diffraction

Abstract

Publisher Summary The idea of observing electron diffraction in a convergent beam was born at the Technical University of Danzig, where Walther Kossel, of the Institute of Physics, together with his co-workers, discovered the interference of X-rays emitted from sources within the lattice, formed within the crystal as fluorescent radiation of the lattice atoms excited by electrons or primary X-rays. An intensive exchange of ideas with the discoverer of X-ray interference, Nobel Prize winner Max von Laue, who called this the “Kossel effect,” resulted in active attempts to interpret the details of this new kind of X-ray interference. A similar and even more striking effect was observed in S. Kikuchi's electron interference patterns. To obtain additional information on the elementary processes of electron scattering in monocrystals, W. Kossel asked Gottfried Mollenstedt to study “electron interferences in a convergent beam” as a subject for a diploma thesis. This chapter presents a view of his early work on convergent-beam electron diffraction.