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A vanishing crystal basis structure factor can depend on approximate equality of atomic scattering factors, rather than on an exact space group condition. For two inequivalent site classes, an amplitude $F=C(f_A-f_B)$ vanishes when $f_A=f_B$ but becomes weakly observable if bonding electron densities or thermal displacements differ. Chemical identity alone does not imply identical local atomic scattering factors. The diffraction intensity is quadratic in the small difference.

Crystal isomorphism is a relation between crystal structures that preserves the relevant lattice and structural arrangement while permitting specified atomic replacement or addition. The IUCr definition requires the same space group and unit cell dimensions, with corresponding atom positions and types apart from those substitutions or additions.^[ref] Similar external crystal shapes or equal chemical formulas alone do not establish those conditions.

The relation matters experimentally in single isomorphous replacement and multiple isomorphous replacement. A heavy-atom derivative is useful when the unlabeled parent contribution is sufficiently unchanged to write, in a common coordinate convention,Here $F_P$ is the native structure factor and $F_H$ is the reference contribution from the added heavy atoms. If derivatization also changes the parent structure, a more honest decomposition isThe additional term cannot generally be inferred from the heavy-atom label alone. For original complex amplitudes $F_P=4+3i$ and $F_H=3$, the ideal derivative has squared magnitude58. If a structural change contributes $\Delta F_{\mathrm{structure}}=1$, the squared magnitude becomes73. Interpreting that increase solely as extra label scattering would misattribute the change.

Matching unit-cell dimensions is only one test. An original periodic two-site model illustrates why the atomic basis of a crystal matters too. Put identical point scatterers at fractional coordinates $(0,0,0)$ and $(1/2,0,0)$. For the $(100)$ reflection their amplitudes cancel. Moving the second site to $(1/2+\delta ,0,0)$ without changing the cell dimensions giveswhere $f$ is the common atomic scattering factor. At $\delta =0.01$, the magnitude is about $0.0628|f|$ rather than zero. The stipulated model is not an experimental derivative; it shows how unchanged lattice spacing can coexist with changed diffraction intensities from shifted atoms.

In actual phasing, crystal isomorphism is an approximation to assess across the measured X-ray diffraction data. The ideal vector-circle constructions assume comparable native and derivative amplitudes and consistently referenced heavy-atom positions.^[ref] Preserved cell metrics support that comparison, but cannot by themselves prove the unchanged-parent assumption.

Static fluctuations in which chemical element occupies a site produce scattering beyond coherent Bragg diffraction from the mean crystal structure. For independent binary occupations with probabilities $p$ and $1-p$, the variance of the site's atomic scattering factor is $p(1-p)|f_A-f_B{|}^2$. Writing each site amplitude as its mean plus a zero-mean fluctuation shows that the mean squared total amplitude is the coherent contribution plus a term proportional to the number of sites and this variance. Consequently a forbidden reflection of the average crystal structure can still sit on a diffuse background. Correlated occupations add nontrivial scattering vector dependence.

The incident X-ray drives the electrons of an atom. Away from an absorption edge, and when the photon energy greatly exceeds the relevant electronic binding energies but is small compared with $m_e{c}^2$, each electron has approximately the same Thomson scattering amplitude. The much heavier nucleus makes a negligible contribution because its acceleration is much smaller.

For elastic scattering, the amplitudes from different bound electrons add coherently. In units of the single-electron amplitude, the atomic scattering factor is the Fourier transform of the bound-electron number density:Consequently, when the electron cloud is not well resolved by the scattering vector, its internal phase differences are small andThis is an approximation to the coherent scattering amplitude, not an assertion that independently scattered intensities add as $N_e$. At larger momentum transfer, destructive interference within the cloud reduces $f$; near absorption edges, the atomic scattering factor acquires dispersive corrections. Inelastic scattering is a separate contribution. In an ionic crystal, use the ion's bound-electron count rather than automatically using the neutral atom's atomic number.

Use the total scattering angle $\psi =2\theta$. For a cubic unit cell, Bragg's law and the Miller indices giveThe four measured values of ${\sin }^2\theta$, normalized to the first, are $1,1.330,2.655,3.649$. Multiplying by three gives approximately $3,4,8,11$, the initial allowed sequence for a face-centered cubic lattice:The FCC lattice factor is $1+(-1{)}^{h+k}+(-1{)}^{h+l}+(-1{)}^{k+l}$; it vanishes unless all three indices have the same parity. Thus the initial ratios differ from those of a primitive or body-centered cubic lattice. This is the conventional minimal cubic indexing; arbitrarily hiding additional weak reflections could make a short list alone ambiguous.

The low-pressure rock salt structure has an FCC Bravais lattice with one NaCl formula unit per primitive unit cell, or four per conventional cube. A possible atomic basis of a crystal is Na at zero and Cl at $(1/2,0,0)$ in conventional fractional coordinates. The two species have unequal atomic scattering factors, so both the odd and even FCC families can occur.

The four independent lattice constant estimates areTheir small scatter reflects the rounded angular data. The appropriate reported result is

The sites form a face-centered cubic lattice decorated by an identical two-atom atomic basis of a crystal, at fractional displacements $0$ and $\mathbf{\delta }=(1/4,1/4,1/4)$. This is the diamond cubic structure; the eight atoms in its conventional cube are not eight independent Bravais-lattice points.

For identical silicon atomic scattering factors $f$, the conventional-cell structure factor separates into the FCC factor and the two-site motif factor:The first factor vanishes unless $h,k,l$ are all even or all odd. For all-even indices, the motif also vanishes if $h+k+l=4r+2$; it survives if the sum is divisible by four. All-odd indices survive, with motif modulus $\sqrt{2}$. Thus $(100)$ and $(110)$ are absent by centering, $(200)$ is absent by the diamond basis, and $(111)$ and $(220)$ are allowed.

For a cubic cell, $d_{hkl}=a/\sqrt{h^2+k^2+l^2}$. At fixed X-ray wavelength, Bragg's law makes the smallest scattering angles correspond to the smallest allowed positive values of $h^2+k^2+l^2$. These start with $3$ and $8$, soThe braces denote whole powder families, including their symmetry-equivalent plane normals. The next family is $\{311\}$, with squared-index sum $11$; using the FCC rule alone would incorrectly insert a $(200)$ line before $(220)$.

Take $(x_j,y_j,z_j)$ as fractional coordinates in the chosen unit cell. In the kinematic approximation the crystal basis structure factor isEquivalently, in Cartesian coordinates the phase is ${\mathbf{G}}_{hkl}\cdot {\mathbf{r}}_j$. Reversing every phase sign complex-conjugates the nonabsorbing amplitude and leaves its intensity unchanged. The atomic scattering factor is the Fourier transform of the atom's electron density, in electron scattering units:At zero scattering angle the normal form factor counts electrons: $f_j(0)=Z_j$ for a neutral atom, modified by the ionic charge for an ion. At increasing $Q$, different parts of the electron cloud scatter with different phases, reducing the coherent amplitude. Typical nonresonant atomic curves fall from their forward value toward small values at large angle. A localized cloud falls more slowly in reciprocal space. Anomalous scattering near an absorption edge adds energy-dependent complex terms and is excluded from this simple sketch.

For a fixed reflection and fixed instrumental and geometric corrections,The full amplitude also contains the lattice sum. At its reciprocal-lattice peak, $N_c$ coherently illuminated identical cells give a peak amplitude $N_{c}F$; peak height and integrated peak intensity have different size dependences because the peak narrows with crystal size. Powder multiplicity, polarization, absorption, thermal motion and measurement geometry also affect observed intensities. The basis factor determines relative interference, not every experimental prefactor.

The two sites give phases one and $\exp [i\pi (h+k+l)]=(-1{)}^{h+k+l}$. ThusFor real nonresonant form factors, even $h+k+l$ gives the square of the sum and odd $h+k+l$ the square of the difference. The factor $K_{hkl}$ represents the remaining experimental corrections, not another basis-interference term. Since the two ions differ, a half-body-diagonal translation does not preserve the decorated crystal. Its Bravais lattice is therefore simple cubic, with a two-ion basis; CsCl is not a monatomic body-centered cubic Bravais lattice.

Replacing both sites by identical Fe atoms changes the amplitude toNow the body-centering translation does preserve the structure. It is a body-centered cubic lattice with one Fe atom per primitive cell, or two per conventional cubic cell.

For 111 the parity is odd: CsCl generally has a nonzero amplitude $f_{\mathrm{C}{\mathrm{s}}^{+}}-f_{\mathrm{C}{\mathrm{l}}^{-}}$, whereas the identical-Fe 111 reflection is systematically absent. A numerical absolute CsCl intensity requires the angle-dependent form factors and experimental normalization; no such values are supplied. Forward electron counts, 54 for Cs+ and 18 for Cl-, explain why their amplitudes are substantially unequal, but are not substituted for the actual finite-angle factors without an additional approximation.

The X-ray wavelength is $\lambda =hc/E=1.54980\times 10^{-10}\mathrm{m}$. Write the amplitude of one conventional unit cell as the face-centred cubic selection rule times the two-atom atomic basis amplitude:The first bracket is four when the indices have equal parity and zero otherwise. Among the allowed Bragg reflections, the zinc blende structure factor therefore givesHere the atomic scattering factors are taken as real. For the requested rough estimate set $f_{\mathrm{Ga}}\simeq 31$ and $f_{\mathrm{As}}\simeq 33$. The weak difference reflections remain allowed: unequal species do not have the extra exact extinction of the equal-species diamond limit.

The first six allowed values of $h^2+k^2+l^2$ are $3,4,8,11,12,16$. Bragg's law gives the measured scattering angle $2\theta =2{\sin }^{-1}(\lambda \sqrt{h^2+k^2+l^2}/2a)$. For powder diffraction, multiply the squared amplitude by the powder diffraction multiplicity $m_{hkl}$. The last two columns use $I_{111}=100$:The first intensity column is the geometry-independent multiplicity-and-structure estimate. The second additionally assumes an unpolarized beam and a common symmetric powder-diffractometer geometry, with Lorentz-polarization factorAn overall constant cancels in either normalization. A particular measured intensity set is not fixed by the atomic numbers alone: actual atomic scattering factors decrease with momentum transfer, anomalous scattering and absorption can matter, and the instrument geometry and polarization determine angular corrections. The two columns state the approximation rather than asserting identical peak heights for all instruments.^[ref]

Initially approximate every tungsten atom by the same atomic scattering factor $f$. Pairing the quarter-coordinate sites in the crystal basis structure factor givesFor cubic powder diffraction, increasing deflection corresponds to increasing $h^2+k^2+l^2$, since $d_{hkl}=a/\sqrt{h^2+k^2+l^2}$. The first possibilities are

Hence the first two strong rings have Miller indicesThe powder diffraction multiplicity is six for $\{200\}$, from three choices of nonzero axis and two signs. For $\{210\}$ it is $3!2^2=24$, from six permutations and four sign choices. If the atomic scattering factors and angular corrections are taken as approximately equal for these nearby rings, their integrated diffraction intensity obeyThis is a multiplicity-based estimate. An exact measured ratio also depends on the momentum-transfer dependence of the atomic scattering factor, the Lorentz-polarization factor, the Debye–Waller factor, absorption and instrument geometry. In particular, the source does not provide the beta-phase lattice constant or instrument corrections needed to calculate those angular factors. Peak heights additionally depend on peak widths; the estimate refers to integrated ring intensities.

The two body-centre/origin sites and the other six sites have different local environments. Their effective atomic scattering factors therefore need not be identical even in an elemental, chemically pure crystal. Write them as $f_A$ and $f_B$, respectively. The crystal basis structure factor becomesFor the low-angle families this givesThus $\{110\}$ can produce a weak extra powder diffraction ring below $\{200\}$. This is an accidental diffraction extinction from equal atomic scattering factors: its cancellation in part d is exact only in the identical-atom-scattering approximation. Small differences in the bonding electron density, or site-dependent Debye–Waller factors, can leave a small nonzero amplitude. For instance, taking $f_A=f+\delta f$ and $f_B=f$ gives $F_{110}=2\delta f$ while $F_{200}=4f+2\delta f$; the corresponding intensity suppression is quadratic in $|\delta f/f|$. No impurity is required. The $\{100\}$ and $\{111\}$ cancellations remain for arbitrary scalar $f_A,f_B$ in this two-site-class model.

Separate the entire-system atom index into a cell translation $\mathbf{R}$ and an index $p$ within a single primitive unit cell. The potential becomesThe same $u_p$ is used in every translated cell because the atomic basis repeats. Normalize plane waves in volume $\Omega$ by $⟨\mathbf{x}|\mathbf{k}⟩={\Omega }^{-1/2}{e}^{i\mathbf{k}\cdot \mathbf{x}}$. For $\mathbf{G}={\mathbf{k}}^{\prime }-\mathbf{k}$, substitution and $\mathbf{s}=\mathbf{x}-\mathbf{R}-{\mathbf{r}}_p$ giveFor a real static scalar potential, define the atomic scattering factor in the positive-exponent convention of the question byThe second bracket in the matrix element is $S(\mathbf{G}{)}^{\ast }$. At a reciprocal lattice vector every term of the first bracket is one, giving the number of cells $N_c$. Therefore the stated transition-rate rule, equivalently the first Born approximation and Fermi's golden rule up to the final-state kinematic factors, yieldsThe harmless complex conjugation records the distinction between the source's positive-exponent Fourier transform and the usual positive-exponent incoming plane wave. Reversing every Fourier sign gives the equivalent amplitude convention. Only the cell-translation sum ranges over the full crystal; the crystal basis structure factor contains the atoms of one cell.

For the reciprocal lattice vector ${\mathbf{G}}_{hkl}=(2\pi /a)(h,k,l)$, sum the atomic scattering factors with the atomic basis phase factors. Taking the positive phase convention gives the structure factorChanging the phase convention complex-conjugates the structure factor and leaves the diffraction wave intensity unchanged. Since the Miller indices are integers,If all three Miller indices have the same integer parity, all pairwise sums are even. Otherwise exactly one pairwise sum is even and two are odd. ConsequentlyThe corresponding structure factors are $f_{\mathrm{Au}}+3f_{\mathrm{Cu}}$ and $f_{\mathrm{Au}}-f_{\mathrm{Cu}}$. Reflections with mixed integer parity are superlattice reflections that reveal chemical ordering in alloys.

At each reflection, the argument of the atomic scattering factor isSubstitution into the given atomic scattering factor approximation givesThus the structure factors are $S_{110}=36.2620$ and $S_{111}=113.7340$. The powder diffraction multiplicity is $m_{110}=12$: choose which Miller index is zero in three ways and the signs of the other two in four ways. For $\{111\}$, the eight sign choices give $m_{111}=8$. With the specified instrumental and angular factors omitted, the integrated powder diffraction wave intensity is proportional to $m_{hkl}|S_{hkl}{|}^2$, soIt would be incorrect to use the same atomic scattering factors at the two different scattering vectors, or to omit the powder diffraction multiplicity.

The stoichiometry fixes the site probabilities to $1/4$ gold and $3/4$ copper. Every site in the average crystal structure therefore has the same atomic scattering factorThe average structure factor isAt $(110)$ the bracket vanishes, while at $(111)$ it is four. HenceThe $(111)$ powder diffraction multiplicity is unchanged, so its coherent Bragg diffraction wave intensity equals the ordered value under the stated equal-lattice constant approximation.

The zero refers to the coherent Bragg diffraction peak of the average crystal structure. A random alloy can still give occupational diffuse scattering at the same scattering vector: the average of the squared amplitude includes fluctuations as well as the square of the average amplitude. Such background is not a surviving $(110)$ Bragg diffraction peak.

Use the same atomic basis phases as in the ordered structure factor, replacing each atomic scattering factor by its site average. For the reflection with equal integer parity,Conservation of the total composition removes the alloy sublattice order parameter from this amplitude. For the reflection with mixed integer parity,The coherent powder diffraction wave intensities consequently satisfyHere the lattice constant, atomic scattering factors, powder diffraction multiplicities, and omitted experimental factors are held fixed. The ratio of a superlattice reflection to a fundamental reflection can therefore measure the magnitude of the alloy sublattice order parameter.

Specify the normalization of the alloy sublattice order parameter rather than assuming that its endpoint values uniquely define it. Let $p_c$ be the probability of gold occupation at a corner site and defineThe complementary copper probability is $3(1-\rho )/4$, so the corner-site atomic scattering factor isThe stoichiometry provides one gold chemical atom per four-site unit cell. If all three face sublattices are equivalent, their gold occupation probability $p_f$ obeys $p_c+3p_f=1$. ThereforeAt $\rho =1$ the corner and face sites carry pure gold and pure copper; at $\rho =0$ they have identical statistical compositions. These formulas describe the branch with $0\le \rho \le 1$ and equivalent face-site averages.

Away from an absorption edge, the scalar atomic scattering factor is the Fourier transform of an approximately spherical, real atomic electron density. Opposite points contribute conjugate phases, so their sum is real. In Thomson scattering the electronic response is also effectively in phase with the driving field in this nonabsorbing approximation. Near an absorption edge, resonantly driven electronic excitations introduce a phase lag and absorption. The atomic scattering factor becomes $f_0+f^{\prime }+i{f}^{\prime \prime }$, with $f^{\prime \prime }$ describing the absorptive component and $f^{\prime }$ its dispersive companion. The sign of the imaginary part depends on the time and scattering-phase conventions; here it is the source's $+i{f}^{\prime \prime }$ convention. This discussion concerns scalar charge scattering, without magnetic or tensor resonant contributions.

Use fractional coordinates and the structure factor conventionFor real atomic scattering factors, $F(-\mathbf{h})=F(\mathbf{h}{)}^{\ast }$, immediately proving Friedel's law. If an inversion centre is chosen as origin, each site at ${\mathbf{r}}_j$ has an identical partner at $-{\mathbf{r}}_j$, with the same possibly complex atomic scattering factor. Each pair contributes $2f_j\cos (2\pi \mathbf{h}\cdot {\mathbf{r}}_j)$; sites fixed by inversion modulo a lattice translation also have even phase factors at reciprocal-lattice vectors. Henceeven for scalar anomalous X-ray scattering in a centrosymmetric structure. This last equality is an equality of amplitudes, not generally complex conjugacy.

Use the scattering vector $\mathbf{q}={\mathbf{k}}_{\mathrm{in}}-{\mathbf{k}}_{\mathrm{out}}$; reversing its sign conjugates the following amplitudes without changing the intensities. In the kinematic approximation, the atomic scattering factor of atom $s$ isAtoms at $\mathbf{R}+{\mathbf{d}}_s$ therefore give the scattering amplitudeHere $A_e$ is the single-electron amplitude; $F$ is the unit cell structure factor, and $S_L$ is the geometrical lattice sum. If the crystal has $N_i$ repeats along ${\mathbf{a}}_i$, the latter factor is a product of geometric series, whose magnitudes containThe sharp constructive peaks occur when every $\mathbf{q}\cdot {\mathbf{a}}_i=2\pi h_i$. Thus a permitted reflection has wavevector change equal to a reciprocal lattice vector, with $F(\mathbf{G})\ne 0$ and the additional elastic condition $|{\mathbf{k}}_{\mathrm{out}}|=|{\mathbf{k}}_{\mathrm{in}}|$. A finite crystal broadens these peaks; it does not impose an exact delta-function selection on every scattered photon.