Paul Steinhardt, “Indiana Steinhardt and the Quest for Quasicrystals” (Open Agenda, 2021)
New Books in Science, Technology, and Society
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Quasi Crystals - What Are They?
In order to identify a quasi crystal, you need a very perfect grain of material. And often for materials, whether they're synthetic or mineral, you can get many tiny, little grains that are not big enough in their own right. So the method was never like it was in any other natural history museum - there was always only one location in the world where this kind of sample could be found. But then miraculously, here at Princeton we were able to find and slice some samples from all over the world with an electron microscope. The process is called 'semi-crystal identification' It's based on analysing powder patterns made by electrons shining through them.
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