Journal of Applied Crystallography

Volume 35, Part 5 (October 2002)

research papers

J. Appl. Cryst. (2002). 35, 606-614 [ doi:10.1107/S0021889802011470 ]

A high-resolution X-ray diffractometer for the study of imperfect materials

A. Boulle, O. Masson, R. Guinebretière, A. Lecomte and A. Dauger

Abstract: A high-resolution X-ray diffractometer devoted to the study of imperfect materials (mainly oxides and ceramics) is presented. It is based on a rotating anode generator, a four-bounce monochromator, a five-movement sample holder and a curved position-sensitive detector (PSD). This setup allows rapid acquisition of a reciprocal-space map (in less than 10 h) even for very poorly diffracting materials. The two-dimensional instrumental profile is calculated taking into account each optical element in the beam path. The one-dimensional instrumental profiles corresponding to widely used scans ( [omega] scan, [theta] -2 [theta] scan, rocking curve and powder scan) are also calculated. In the three former cases, the setup exhibits an excellent angular resolution (0.003°), whereas in the latter case the resolution is lowered by one order of magnitude at the benefit of a strong increase in the collected intensity. The possibilities of this diffractometer are illustrated with three examples: an epitaxic layer, a microstructured single crystal and a powder.

Keywords: high-resolution X-ray diffractometer; imperfect materials; defect structure.