All three quasi-equatorial conformers show weak intensities at 6 Å, whereas the PDFs of the quasiaxial conformers show essentially no intensity. The minimum at 3.5 Å relates to a general feature in polyenic rings. Due to the rigidity of the structure, the third carbon coordination sphere has a bimodal distance distribution originating from carbon-carbon distances on the same side, for example the (C1, C8) distance (for the numbering, see the inset in Fig. ), or on opposite sides of the common carbon-carbon bond, for example the (C3, C10) distance (see the blue histogram in Fig. ). This bimodal distribution results in a minimum at 3.5 Å for the quasi-equatorial conformers. In two of the quasi-axial conformers, one CH3 carbon of the isopropyl group points directly below the ring plane, moving a number of (isopropyl-carbon, ring-carbon) distances to 3.5 Å, which results in a shoulder instead of a minimum in the PDF at 3.5 Å. The differences in the area of 6 Å originate from quasi-axial αPh being less stretched in the ring plane and, thus, having smaller maximum carbon-carbon distances than quasi-equatorial αPh, e.g. (C5, C10).