High-temperature (1500 K) reciprocal space mapping on a laboratory X-ray diffractometer

A laboratory X-ray diffractometer devoted to the in situ characterization of the microstructure of epitaxic thin films at temperatures up to 1500 K has been developed. The sample holder was built using refractory materials, and a high-accuracy translation stage allows correction of the dilatation of both the sample and the sample holder. The samples are oriented with respect to the primary beam with two orthogonal rotations allowing the registration of symmetric as well as asymmetric reciprocal space maps (RSMs). The association of a monochromatic primary beam and a position-sensitive detector allows the measurement of RSMs in a few minutes for single crystals and in a few hours for imperfect epitaxic thin films. A detailed description of the setup is given and its potential is illustrated by high-temperature RSM experiments performed on yttria-doped zirconia epitaxic thin films grown on sapphire substrates.