Photograph of a giant structural distortion in a quasi-one dimensional organic crystal

Using a high-speed photographic technique, we have recorded directly the crystalline distortion associated with a first-order phase transition in tetrathiafulvalenium-bis-ditholene (Cu). This structural distortion, at a temperature of 238 K, has been observed as a crystal motion through an angle of the order of 10°. The phase change may be important in establishing the one-dimensional magnetic character of the crystal that leads to a spin-dimerization transition at a temperature of 12 K.