Glossary of synchrotron terms
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M |
| N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |
Circular Dichroism (UV)
This entry refers to UV Circular dichroism (CD). See also XMCD. Circular Dichroism is the differential absorption of left- and right-handed circularly polarized light. It is a form of spectroscopy used to determine the optical isomerism and secondary structure of molecules, and to study a wide variety of chiral materials in solution, particularly biologically important molecules such as proteins, nucleic acids, carbohydrates, lipids and drugs.
Coherence
Coherence is a property of light which describes the relative phase of the photons in a beam of light. Highly coherent light has the majority of photons in phase. At synchrotrons techniques such as Coherent X-Ray Diffraction allows not only reconstructing the shape of nano-scale crystals but also provides 3D information about parameters such as the internal stress.
Control System
The control system at Diamond refers to the hardware and software that control the machine, from the electron gun to the front ends of the beamlines. At Diamond the control system is maintained and developed by the Controls Group.
Crystallography
Crystallography (Macromolecular Crystallography or MX, also referred to as Protein Crystallography or PX) is the most powerful method for determining the atomic three dimensional structures of large biological molecules. It is a vital tool for linking structure with function, for rational drug design, for investigating protein folding and for relating other structural information, such as evolutionary relationships, from biological molecules.