Dear all, I am sorry about this slightly off-topic question. I am now a graduate TA for crystallography course and one student asked me a question that I didn't ask myself before. I don't have enough knowledge to precisely answer this question, so I am seeking for help here.
The question is, as I rephrased it, assuming we are able to measure the diffraction pattern of a single molecule with acceptable accuracy and precision (comparable to what we have now for the common crystals), is it better than we measure the diffraction spots from a crystal, given that the spots are just a sampling of the continuous pattern from a single molecule and there is loss of information in the space between the spots that are not sampled by the lattice? Of course this is more of a thought experiment, so we don't need to consider that all measurement is discrete in nature owing to the limitation of the pixel size. I kinda agree with him and I have a feeling that this is related to the sampling theorem. I do appreciate your valuable comments. If this is not true, why? If this is true, what is its effect on electron density? Thank you so much for your attention and your help in advance! Best, Chen
