Abstract
The author has spent nearly five decades working on the molecular structure of gaseous molecules using principally the method of electron diffraction. During this time he has seen and participated in the development of the method from its crude beginning in which the diffraction patterns were measured by hand and interpreted by eye, to the powerful, nearly automatic instrument-based methods of today. Accompanying this evolution in the method is a similar evolution in the complexity of the scientific problems. Whereas in the early days the molecules studied were necessarily simple and the parameter determinations accurate to a few hundredths of an Ångström, electron diffraction today is routinely applied to molecules with a 10-fold greater numbers of parameters and yields results 10 times more accurate. This article summarizes some of the many recollections accumulated by the author during that professional journey.
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Hedberg, K. Fifty Years of Gas-Phase Electron-Diffraction Structure Research: A Personal Retrospective. Struct Chem 16, 93–109 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11224-005-2813-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11224-005-2813-1