Aims
Crystals (ISSN 2073-4352) is an open access journal that covers all aspects of crystalline material research. Crystalsprovides a forum for the advancement of our understanding of the nucleation, growth, processing, and characterization of crystalline and liquid crystalline materials. Their mechanical, chemical, electronic, magnetic, and optical properties, and their diverse applications, are all considered to be of importance. Additionally, we encourage contributors to send articles focused on crystals research (of small and high molecular weight). Their characterization by using modern techniques for crystal growth and high resolution characterization such as synchrotron radiation and modern methods for the growth of crystals for X-ray free electron lasers (XFELS) would also be welcome.
Crystals can be used as a reference and publication source for the crystalline research community. Crystals publishes reviews, regular research articles and short communications. Our aim is to encourage scientists to publish their experimental, theoretical and computational results in as much detail as possible so that results can be reproduced. Therefore, there is no restriction on article length.
Subject Areas
All classes of crystalline materials, either in bulk or as thin films, such as:
semiconductors
magnetic systems
superconductors
graphene
photonic crystals
piezoelectric crystals
ferroelectric crystals
optical crystals, including nonlinear and laser crystals
scintillating crystals
periodic metamaterials
minerals and biominerals
metals
salts
liquid crystals
biomolecules
small organic molecules, including drugs
cocrystals
mesocrystals
Crystal growth techniques include, but are not limited to:
conventional crystal growth, including Bridgman, Czochralski, top seeding, solid state conversion, high temperature flux methods
molecular beam, chemical beam, and vapor phase epitaxy
design and processing of photonic crystals and metamaterials
non-classical growth by particle attachment and fusion
Characterization techniques, such as:
X-ray diffraction
photoluminescence
electron microscopy and diffraction
neutron diffraction
free electron lasers
scanning probe microscopy
carrier transport
magnetic property measurements
Rutherford backscattering
ellipsometry
AFM/PFM
Property characterizations, including but not limited to optical, magnetic, electronic, etc.
Fundamental research into:
solid-state physics and chemistry
crystalline surfaces
crystalline structure
crystalline interface
crystallization mechanisms, including liquid and amorphous precursor phases as well as clusters
Additional, more detailed, information of topics and subject areas is given in journal sections (see Journal Menu): Liquid Crystals; Biomolecular Crystals; Crystalline Materials; Crystal Engineering.

Editorial Board
Editorial Board
Liquid Crystals Section
Biomolecular Crystals Section
Crystalline Materials Section
Crystal Engineering Section
Editors (5)
Prof. Dr. Helmut Cölfen E-Mail 
Editor-in-Chief
Physical Chemistry, Universität Konstanz, Germany
Tel. +49-7531-884063 
Interests: nucleation; nanoparticle self organization; non classical crystallization; mesocrystals; biomineralization; nanoparticle analysis by fractionating methods
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Sławomir J. J. Grabowski * E-Mail Website 
Section Editor-in-Chief


Kimika Fakultatea, Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea UPV/EHU, Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC), P.K. 1072, 20080, Donostia, Euskadi, Spain 
Tel. +34 943 01 5339 
Interests: hydrogen bond; Lewis acid–Lewis base interactions; atoms in molecules theory; ab initio calculations
* Section: "Crystal Engineering" 
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals
Prof. Abel Moreno * E-Mail Website 
Section Editor-in-Chief


Instituto de Química, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Av. Universidad 3000, Cd.Mx. 04510, Mexico
Interests: protein crystals; biocrystals; crystal growth; protein crystallography; crystal chemistry; biomineralization; biomimetics; biological macromolecules
* Section: "Biomolecular Crystals" 
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Charles Rosenblatt * E-Mail Website 
Section Editor-in-Chief


Ohio Eminent Scholar and Professor of Physics, Department of Physics, Case Western Reserve University Cleveland, OH 44106-7079, USA
Tel. +1-216-802-8026 
Interests: liquid crystals and complex fluids (electric and magnetic field effects, interfaces, phase transitions, colloidal inclusions); fluid interface instabilities; microgravity
* Section: "Liquid Crystals" 
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Shujun Zhang * E-Mail Website 
Section Editor-in-Chief


ISEM/AIIM, University of Wollongong, NSW 2500, Wollongong, Australia
Tel. 242981479 
Interests: Piezoelectricity, Ferroelectricity, Crystals, Ceramics, Transducers
* Section: "Crystalline Materials" 
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals
Previous Editor
Prof. Dr. Gerd Meyer * E-Mail Website 
Former Editor-in-Chief


Institut für Anorganische Chemie, Universität zu Köln, Greinstraße 6, D-50939 Köln, Germany
Tel. x; Fax: +49 221 470 5083 
Interests: rare-earth and transition metal; solid state; coordination chemistry
* Founding Editor-in-Chief 
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals
Editorial Board Members (256)
Prof. Dr. Rui M. Almeida E-Mail Website 


Departamento de Engenharia Química/CQE, Instituto Superior Técnico/UL, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal
Interests: sol-gel films; photonic materials; frequency conversion; rare-earth luminescence; glass surfaces; glass crystallization; bioactive glasses
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals:
Special Issue in Crystals: Crystallization of Sol-Gel Derived Glasses
Dr. Angela Altomare E-Mail Website 


Institute of Crystallography, National Research Council-CNR, Bari, Italy
Tel. +39 080 5929155 
Interests: crystal structure solution; powder diffraction; direct methods; real space methods; indexing; space group determination; Rietveld refinement; X-ray data collection
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals:
Special Issue in Crystals: Crystal Structure Characterization by Powder Diffraction
Dr. Borislav Angelov E-Mail Website 


Institute of Physics, ELI Beamlines, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic
Interests: lipid polymorphism; lipid cubic phases; non-lamellar lipid phases; lipid nanoparticles; protein crystallization; kinetics of crystal growth; kinetics of phase transitions; liquid crystals; time resolved X-ray scattering (SAXS and WAXS; X-ray powder diffraction; pump-probe and stop-flow kinetics; membrane biophysics
Prof. Dr. Ronald W. Armstrong E-Mail Website 


Department of Mechanical Engineering, A. James Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
Interests: dislocation mechanics; constitutive equations; Hall-Petch relations; Zerilli-Armstrong equations; microstructural stereology; high rate metal deformations; ductile-brittle transition behaviors; x-ray diffraction imaging
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals:
Special Issue in Crystals: Crystal Dislocations
Special Issue in Crystals: Crystal Indentation Hardness
Special Issue in Metals: Dislocation Mechanics of Metal Plasticity and Fracturing
Prof. Jerry L. Atwood E-Mail Website 


University of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia, United States
Interests: Supramolecular; Inorganic; Materials; Solid-State; Environmental
Prof. Dr. John Bacsa E-Mail Website 


Department of Chemistry, Emory University, Atlanta, USA
Interests: crystallography; crystal growth; coordination chemistry, quantum crystallography; charge densities; atoms-in-molecules analyses (AIM)
Dr. Mohamed Balli E-Mail Website 


Institut Quantique & Department of Physics, University of Sherbrooke, 2500 Boulevard de l’Université, J1K 2R1, Québec, Canada
Interests: magnetic materials; magnetocaloric materials; caloric materials; magnetic refrigeration; multiferroics; nanomagnetic materials; thin films; single crystals; frustrated magnetism; permanent magnets; soft magnetic materials; structural and physical properties; energy conversion
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals:
Special Issue in Crystals: Advances in Caloric Materials
Prof. Dr. Peter Baran E-Mail Website 


Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Juniata College, von Liebig Science Center 2035, 1700 Moore Street, Huntingdon, PA 16652, USA
Tel. +1(814) 641 3560; Fax: +1(814) 641 3685 
Interests: synthesis of coordination compounds, spectroscopic characterization of coordination compounds, X-ray crystallography of small molecules, crystal growing techniques, coordination compounds with biological activity, coordination polymeric networks
Prof. Dr. Rajratan Basu E-Mail Website 


Department of Physics, The United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD 21402, USA
Tel. +1-410-293-6684 
Interests: directed self-assembly of nanomaterials (carbon nanotubes, quantum dots, ferroelectric nanoparticles, graphene, ferromagnetic nanoparticles, gold nanoparticles, nanodiamonds etc.) in liquid crystals; development of liquid crystal / nanomaterials based nano- electromechanical systems, electro-optic devices, micro-switching devices, and electromechanical memory functions; order-disorder phenomena in soft matter systems; liquid crystal phases and phase transitions
Prof. Antonio Bauza E-Mail 


Departament de Química, Universitat de les Illes Balears, Palma de Mallorca, Baleares, Spain
Interests: noncovalent interactions; supramolecular chemistry; Lewis acid–Lewis base interactions; crystal engineering; theoretical chemistry