ABSTRACT
For the first time in physics history diffractometry and spectroscopy have been joined to common synergetic effects that may contribute to a better understanding of electric and magnetic interactions in a crystal. The DEN (difference electron nanoscope) is no classical machine as the title of the book might infer. It is a smart combination of a very powerful computer and a software that combines diffractometric and spectroscopic data in order to visualize three-dimensional difference electron densities around the nuclei of the ions in the crystal unit cell—in our case stemming from 3d orbitals. These serve to calculate the common quantity of diffractometry and spectroscopy, the electric field gradient (efg) with high accuracy and to display it as a wire frame model within the unit cell of the sample involved. In this sense the DEN is acting on a sub-nanometre scale (therefore the term “nanoscope”) and generating images of uncompared symmetrical and physical evidence—and beauty. This will be shown in Chapter 5 of the present book. The experimental efg, however, can be determined from single crystal Mössbauer spectroscopy (SCMBS) or nuclear magnetic/quadrupole resonance (NMR/NQR) that is confined to other nuclides as the SCMBS. Hence, the DEN can be applied to a huge multitude of scientifically interesting specimen since the main method involved, diffractometry in a wide sense, has no general limitations at all. So, the DEN is a rather universal method and the present monograph might contribute to a wide distribution of the method in the scientific world. Has anyone seen a real orbital before? I don’t think of the very esthetic, but calculated multipole images to be admired in the common textbooks. I mean: a real orbital distribution in a crystal unit cell together with its efg tensor ellipsoid? In the present monograph, one can see it.
