A team of researchers from the Physics and Chemistry departments, in groups led by Professor Pam Thomas and Dr Richard Walton, respectively, have had images from a recent paper selected for the front cover  of the Journal of Applied Crystallography for the duration of 2011. The paper outlined how the combination of variable-temperature optical and structural techniques can be used to probe the phase transitions, strain state and organic template behaviour in various novel functional Zeolites.

The images on the cover show a false-colour birefringence microscope ("Metripol") image of a single crystal of the Zeolite clathrasil dodecasil-3C. This technique reveals both the optical anisotropy, |sin δ|, and the orientation of the "optical indicatrix", φ. The top left image shows |sin δ|, and the remaining three show the orientation at various temperatures. The thin stripes that appear in the bottom right image show that there are thin areas of different orientation, which tells us about the domains that have formed, and hence the structure of the crystal.

A copy of the original paper (Lethbridge, Keeble, Walker, Thomas & Walton, J. Appl. Cryst. 43 168-75 (2010)) is available from here. 

About the Journal

The Journal of Applied Crystallography is an International Union of Crystallography (IUCr) Journal, with an impact factor of 3.2. Many research topics in condensed matter research, materials science and the life sciences make use of crystallographic methods to study crystalline and non-crystalline matter with neutrons, X-rays and electrons. Articles published in the Journal of Applied Crystallography focus on these methods and their use in identifying structural and diffusion-controlled phase transformations, structure-property relationships, structural changes of defects, interfaces and surfaces, etc. Developments of instrumentation and crystallographic apparatus, theory and interpretation, numerical analysis and other related subjects are also covered. The journal is the primary place where crystallographic computer program information is published.

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