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Acta Cryst. (2014). A70, C1454
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Lattice and diffraction are two relating aspects of a crystal. The former reflects the nature of a crystal and the latter describes the basic feature of a crystal. A lattice possesses points and rows two basic characteristics. Great attention has been paid to the points and their distances and directions (angles) they form since the early time of crystallography. Starting from lattice points people have already revealed and found so many regulations in crystals and made great progresses in crystallography. What about the lattice rows? Starting from the geometric relations of reciprocal lattice, we propose six general formulae [1] to describe the relationships between the lattice row distance, the Miller indices h, k, l and the lattice parameters for all crystal systems along any direction. This, like the lattice points, establishes the foundation of the row-indexing, row-refinement of lattice parameters and row-determination of incidence direction theoretically. It is a new method from the lattice row distance to the Miller indices, to the lattice parameters or to the incidence direction. Five steps are optimized for the procedure of "Row-indexing" or "Row-refinement". For example, the procedure of row-indexing is described as 1) measurement of row distance; 2) calculation of row distance; 3) comparison of the measured with the calculated row distances; 4) indexing, and 5) check according to the crystallographic regulations. In respect to diffraction patterns, a series of diffraction spots (points) comprise row(s) and arrange into a series of parallel "lines". When diffraction is strong, diffraction spots are isolated and sharp. However, when diffraction is weak, those spots are obscure or gloomy and often distorted into elongation, asymmetry, deformation, etc. This leads to the outstanding of the rowing "lines" relatively and hence, the row-distance formulae are able to be utilized to structure analysis for those "linear diffraction patterns".

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Acta Cryst. (2014). A70, C1531
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The local structures of tektites and natural glasses were studied by Zr K-edge XANES and EXAFS in order to provide quantitative data on bonding distances and coordination numbers. The XAFS measurements were performed at the beam line BL-NW10A of the PF-AR in National Laboratory for High Energy Physics (KEK), Tsukuba, Japan. Zr4+ ion in tektite has different kinds of coordination environment. Various natural glasses are formed under different physical conditions. Impact-related glass, fulgurite and volcanic glasses are typical natural glasses. Upon a devastating impact of a giant meteoroid on the Earth, particles of the Earth's surface were melted and catapulted into outer space, where they finally solidified and fell back to the Earth. Tektites should be formed by this series of processes [1]. Tektite has special local structure of Ca[2]. Glass structure is affected by the pressure and temperature conditions during the glass formation and quenching process. This study indicated that different formation process of natural glasses gives different local structure of zirconium ions. The Zr K-edge XANES spectra of tektite have the double post-edge peaks with different heights. The volcanic glasses and other impact-related glasses such as impactite possessed more simple XANES patterns. The average coordination number of Zr4+ in darwin glass, LDG, volcanic glass and tektite are between 6 and 7. The eight-coordinated Zr4+ shows different XAFS pattern in suevite and köfelsite. All tektites are classified in same type. According to EXAFS measurements, Zr-O distances in tektites are 2.198 - 2.215Å and XANES spectra of tektites have similar shape. It indicates that tektites have similar Zr local structure with 7-fold coordination Zr ions. Impact-related glasses are classified to different types. Volcanic glasses are classified to same types. Impact glasses are formed under different geological processes at impact event and are experienced different physical environments.
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