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The equation to bridge worlds

Bragg's Law

Nature volume 511, pages 6–7 (2014)Cite this article

It was immediately clear from the photographic plates of Max von Laue, Walter Friedrich and Paul Knipping that X-rays opened a link between atomic structure and the macroscopic world (Milestone 2). What was missing was a way to quantify this link. But in 1912, the nascent field of X-ray crystallography had two main handicaps: little knowledge of the atomic structure of crystals and even less about the nature of X-rays.

Whereas von Laue's "optical feeling" led him, and others, to look to diffraction for answers, William Henry Bragg and Johannes Stark separately subscribed to the idea that X-rays were particles. They believed that X-rays incident on a crystal were siphoned off into "avenues" or channels created by the atomic lattice.

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPERS

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    David Gevaux

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  1. David Gevaux
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Gevaux, D. The equation to bridge worlds. Nature 511 (Suppl 7509), 6–7 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13351

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