Incommensurate Crystallography

For many years it was believed that translational symmetry would be the fundamental property of crystal structures of natural and synthetic compounds. It is now recognised that many compounds crystallise without translational symmetry of their atomic structures. “Incommensurate Crystallography” gives a comprehensive account of the superspace theory for the description of crystal structures and symmetries of these incommensurately modulated crystals and
incommensurate composite crystals. It thus provides the necessary background for quantitative analysis of incommensurate crystals by methods in Solid State Chemistry and Solid State Physics. The second half of
“Incommensurate Crystallography” is devoted to crystallographic methods of structural analysis of incommensurate compounds. Thorough accounts are given of the diffraction by incommensurate crystals, the choice of parameters in structure refinements, and the use of superspace in analysing crystal structures. The presentation of methods of structure determination includes modern methods like the Maximum Entropy Method and Charge Flipping.

Author Biography

Professor Sander van Smaalen
Laboratory of Crystallography
University of Bayreuth
Germany From 1976 until 1981 Sander van Smaalen studied Chemistry at the University of Utrecht.
PhD studies at the University of Groningen were completed in December 1985 with a thesis on the superspace analysis of incommensurately modulated crystals.
After one year of Postdoc in Buffalo, N.Y., U.S.A., van Smaalen was awarded a fellowship in the prestigious program ‘Akademieonderzoekers’ by the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences (KNAW). Between 1987 and 1994 he was appointed at the University of Groningen, and his research was concerned with various aspects of the crystallography of aperiodic crystals.
Since November 1995, Sander van Smaalen is professor of crystallography at the University of Bayreuth, Germany.
Between 1996 and 2005 Sander van Smaalen was member of the Commission on Aperiodic Crystals of the International Union of Crystallography (IUCr), and between 1999 and 2005 he was the Chairman of this Commission.
Since 2000 Sander van Smaalen is co-Editor of Acta Crystallographica B.