X-ray diffraction (is it possible?)

Question

Is it possible to extract full lattice structure of a crystal from any of X-ray diffraction methods? (especially that the diffraction pattern is 2-Dimensional most of times)

Answer 1

Yes. I don't know about 'full' structure, it's probably specific to whether you want to find out the shape of a big lattice structure (something you can hold in your hand) or if you just want to find the microscopic arrangement of the lattice structure. If you're interested in the microscopic arrangement (e.g. crystal structure, chemical composition, and physical properties of materials and thin films) then yes, you can. If you're interested in finding information about the shape of houses from X-ray diffraction then I don't think so.

There are methods to :

-reveal information about the crystal structure, chemical composition, and physical properties of materials and thin films based on observing the scattered intensity of an X-ray beam. X-ray scattering techniques

-determining the atomic and molecular structure of a crystal, in which the crystalline atoms cause a beam of X-rays to diffract into many specific directions. X-ray crystallography

-The crystal structure of a compound was determined from an X-ray powder diffraction pattern. Determination of Crystal Structure by X-ray Diffraction

physics.valpo.edu/courses/p440/Diffraction_Crystal_Structure.ppt

Edit: According to Wikipedia,

X-ray crystallography is a method of determining the atomic and molecular structure of a crystal, in which the crystalline atoms cause a beam of X-rays to diffract into many specific directions. By measuring the angles and intensities of these diffracted beams, a crystallographer can produce a three-dimensional picture of the density of electrons within the crystal. From this electron density, the mean positions of the atoms in the crystal can be determined, as well as their chemical bonds, their disorder and various other information.

and

X-ray crystallography can locate every atom in a zeolite, an aluminosilicate with many important applications, such as water purification.

In a vague hand wavy intuitive sense, yes we can get entire information from X-ray scattering.