Magnetic alteration of crystallite alignment converting powder to a pseudo single crystal

The powder crystallites of (L)-alanine, selected for demonstration purposes, suspended in a photocurable resin were subjected to a frequency-modulated rotating magnetic field, and the achieved three-dimensional alignment was fixed by photopolymerization of the resin. The obtained sample exhibited the X-ray diffraction pattern that was comparable to the pattern of an equivalent actual original single crystal. This was achieved for the first time by the simultaneous alignment of the two magnetic axes, i.e., the easy and hard magnetization axes with respect to the space coordinates. A theoretical estimation indicates that a better alignment of the sample can be obtained if the sample preparation conditions are improved.