UCLA

Crystallization and phase retrieval are the two perennial problems that challenge any endeavor to retrieve structural information from a crystal. Micro-electron diffraction has emerged in recent years as a complementary method to X-ray diffraction by allowing the diffraction of crystals previously too small for routine X-ray techniques. While micro-electron diffraction has great potential to address barriers in crystallization, issues with phase retrieval precludes the technique’s broad utilization. As a nascent technique, many X-ray phasing methods have not been replicated in electron diffraction. In this work, we demonstrate the development and application of racemic crystallography and fragment-based phasing methods for electron diffraction.