The Radial Distribution Method in Electron Diffraction

Abstract

A new radial distribution function for use in interpreting the electron diffraction photographs of gas molecules has been obtained. Instead of replacing the inverted Fourier integral by a sum the integration is performed by assuming that the shapes of the maxima and minima are those of cosine functions. The amount of scattering matter r²D(r) is calculated rather than the density D(r). Comparison between radial distribution functions calculated by this method and by other methods is made for a diatomic molecule, a nonlinear triatomic molecule (to test resolving power), a linear triatomic molecule and carbon tetrachloride.