An automatic system for X-ray diffraction line profile analysis

Abstract

An automatic procedure for X-ray line profile Fourier analysis is described. The Fourier coefficients were computed by the Stokes method and the real parts were used as input data to the Warren-Averbach method, which separates the line broadening due to particle size from that due to microstrains and/or to stacking faults. With the present system all calculations and plots are performed by an appropriately coded minicomputer on-line interfaced with a linear X-ray diffractometer. This system was tested in two different applications. Cu filings (cold-worked) that give two first and second-order diffraction lines, and CdS thin films, prepared by sputtering, which give a single measurable reflection. In this case the Warren-Averbach method was partly modified. The particle size, microstrains and stacking fault probabilities were determined and the results are discussed.