Chemical Crystallography

Compared to Cu-K_α, shorter wavelength radiation, such as Mo-K_α or Ag-K_α, allows diffraction experiments with minimized absorption and higher crystallographic resolution. Therefore, Mo-K_α is the favored wavelength for home-laboratory crystallography on small molecules and inorganic compounds, while Ag-K_α radiation is favorable for diffraction experiments on strongly absorbing materials and for high pressure crystallography.

Today's deposition techniques enable the fabrication of high quality multilayer coatings with small d-spacings that reflect at relatively large Bragg angles. The resulting mirrors have large capture angles and produce intensive beams that are required for high-resolution single crystal diffraction analyses in home-laboratories.

Helios mirrors	IµS for Mo-radiation	IµS for Ag-radiation