Physics & Astronomy

When an x-ray beam strikes a material sample, the x-rays scatter in many directions at once. The often beautiful scattering patterns that arise contain a wealth of information about the sample's atomic structure. How are these patterns measured? With an x-ray camera! In this photo of BYU's single-crystal x-ray diffraction facility, x-rays arriving from the left scatter from a tiny crystal, and are detected by the 16-megapixel x-ray camera at the right. The speed and sensitivity of state-of-the-art instruments like this have revolutionized the study of material structure-property relationships. [Read More]