chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...

and

crystallography Crystallography is the branch of science devoted to the study of molecular and crystalline structure and properties. The word ''crystallography'' is derived from the Ancient Greek word (; "clear ice, rock-crystal"), and (; "to write"). In J ...

, crystal structures that have the same set of interatomic distances are called homometric structures. Homometric structures need not be congruent (that is, related by a rigid motion or reflection). Homometric crystal structures produce identical diffraction patterns; therefore, they cannot be distinguished by a diffraction experiment. Recently, a Monte Carlo algorithm was proposed to calculate the number of homometric structures corresponding to any given set of interatomic distances. Image:homometric1.png, Example of two homometric structures (top) formed by the convolution between two non-centrosymmetric structures (bottom) with different orientations.

References

Stereochemistry {{Crystallography-stub

See also

References