Crystal clear. Engineering complexity

Crystal Engineering, the designed synthesis of functional molecular solids, is poised as a major branch of research in crystallography and chemistry. The centrality of this disciple is illustrated in this lead article.

Qu­antifying optical scattering losses in pump–probe serial femtosecond crystallography experiments

Similar yields of the optically excited fractions of fatty acid photodecarboxyl­ase crystals in pump–probe serial femtosecond crystallography (SFX) experiments using both fixed-target and high-viscosity extrusion (HVE) sample delivery approaches show that pump light scattering reduces the photon flux reaching the crystals in transparent high-viscosity jets by 20–40%, depending on delivery method. This experimental result contradicts previous reports of up to 99% scattering losses, which were argued to justify the use of extremely high pump laser energy densities without entering multiphoton absorption regimes.