A novel lattice-spacing comparator with resolution of 10^-8

A novel, fast and stable system for measuring the lattice spacing of a silicon crystal with a precision of 10^-8 is described. Self selection of monochromatic X-rays by a monolithic double channel-cut crystal monochromator (MDCM), producing silicon 264 and 624 diffraction, may lead to a stable, highly collimated and narrow-bandwidth beam. When utilizing the 264 and 624 Bragg reflections of a silicon sample, the angular distance between the two associated Bragg peaks must be extremely small, so that the diffraction angle can be determined with high precision and the traveling time from one peak to the other can be considerably reduced by the order of at least three compared with the established classical Bond method. This so-called self-reference comparator method can dramatically save measurement time and can provide an absolute measurement on the basis of the known X-ray wavelength available from the MDCM. Thus a lattice-spacing measurement with resolution of 10^-8, within a few tens of seconds for an area of 1 mm² on a silicon sample, has been realised.