Abstract

The solid state physics of frozen proteins shows highly specific features: At the same time proteins reflect structural order as well as disorder. Structural order is expected for biomolecules with spatially highly correlated building blocks. Spatial correlation is convincingly demonstrated in well resolved X-ray diffraction patterns /1/. Yet numerous experiments, mainly in the optical field, demonstrate that proteins behave glass-like /2, 3/. Glasses are charcterized by a rather low spatial correlation of the respective molecules.

© 1994 Optical Society of America