A quantity that is measured in scattering experiments and that gives information about the structure of the material. In the case of a crystal it is denoted Fhkl, where h, k, and l are the Miller indices of the crystal. Fhkl is defined by the equation:
where the sum is over all atoms of the unit cell and fi is the scattering factor for atom i defined by:
where k = 4πsinθ/λ, where θ is the Bragg angle (see Bragg’s law), λ is the wavelength of the X-rays, and ρ is the electron density distribution of the atom i. The structure factor is used extensively in X-ray crystallography. It is also used widely in the theory of liquids, as it is related to the radial distribution function. In X-ray crystallography the square of the modulus of the structure factor for a set of crystal planes with Miller indices h, k, l is proportional to the intensity of reflection from these planes.