The aim of the present paper is to state differences in the spatial distribution of valency electrons for free metal atoms and for molten metals. The element lithium was chosen since both its inner and outer electrons play an important role, so that when a precise X-ray and a precise neutron-diffraction experiment have been carried out a difference, if it exists at all. should be recognizable. The correction of the X-ray data for inelastic, i.e. Compton scattering was done on the basis of an inelastic measurement performed on a spectrometer equipped with a position sensitive detector.
The structure factors S (q) calculated from the X-ray and neutron diffraction data show very good coincidence within the whole q-range. Slight deviations for 0 ≦ q ≦ 1.7 Å-1 are discussed but yield no hint at all on electron correlations independent of the nuclei.
A "Scanning High Energy Electron Diffraction"-(SHEED-)apparatus is described with which the intensity curves of elastically scattered electrons are obtained within a few minutes. The elimination of the inelastic background is done by means of an electrostatic filter with an energy resolution of 10 4 , which is only limited by the line width of the beam producing system. The intensity curves obtained experimentally are corrected for multiple scattering.The pair correlation functions of amorphous Germanium as obtained by electron and X-ray diffraction are compared. The electron diffraction curves agree well with the corresponding curves of other authors. The same stands for the curves obtained with X-rays. The differences between the curves obtained with electrons and X-rays are discussed.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.