On the design of a high-speed combined high-resolution powder diffractometer and small-angle scattering system with time-resolution capability based on the use of imaging plates and CCCC monochromators

Abstract

Design features of a proposed high-resolution, high-speed powder diffractometer for operation at a synchrotron source are described. A key feature of the design is the use of imaging plates to record an almost complete range of data including both the high-angle and the small-angle scattering regime. The x-ray optics involve the use of a condensing-collimating channel-cut monochromator (CCCC) to achieve narrow parallel beams with cross sections of the order of 50 μm in the plane of diffraction, so that geometrical aberrations are very low and the beam cross section is well matched to the spatial resolution of the imaging plate detector. Angular resolution in 2θ of the diffractometer is easily variable, and designed to range from 0.01° upwards. Optional translation of the detector perpendicular to the incident-beam direction makes it possible to obtain time-resolved data. Applications of the instrument include high-resolution powder data collection for Rietveld analysis, studies of dynamic phenomena such as chemical reactions and phase transformations, particle-size determination, texture analysis, residual-stress measurements, single-crystal studies of the truncation-rod effect and surface scattering, microdiffraction, combined high-angle and small-angle scattering measurements, and studies of multilayer structures. As an illustration of the sort of results attainable with the proposed system, we present an oscillation photograph of the crystal-truncation rod effect for a Si wafer which was recorded at a synchrotron source using an imaging plate as the detector.