Quantitative convergent beam electron diffraction measurements of bonding in alumina

Full text: The QCBED technique of measuring accurate structure factors has been made practical by advances in energy filtering, computing and in the accurate measurement of intensity. Originally attempted in 1965 by the late Peter Goodman (CSIRO, Melbourne) while working with Gunter Lehmpfuhl (Fritz Haber Institut, Berlin), QCBED has been successfully developed and tested in the last decade on simple structures such as Si and MgO. Our work on Alumina is a step up in complexity and has shown that extinction in X-ray diffraction is not correctable to the precision required. In combination with accurate X-ray diffraction, QCBED promises to revolutionize the accuracy of bonding charge density measurements, experimental results which are of significance in the development of Density Functional Theory used in predictive chemistry. Copyright (2002) Australian Society for Electron Microscopy Inc