THE ASSESSMENT OF STRAIN IN MATERIALS USING SYNCHROTRON-RADIATION TECHNIQUES AND THE ROLE OF STRAIN IN GROWTH-RATE DISPERSION

A question has been raised [Rule et al., J. Crystal Growth 123 (1992) 373] concerning the reliability of recent studies which we have made o f the role of strain in defining growth rate dispersion in sodium chlo rate microcrystals. A particular criticism was that our method of asse ssment of strain using synchrotron X-radiation was invalid due to the fact that radiation damage could have occurred in the samples. The aut hors also claimed that they could find no correlation between strain a nd growth rate. In this response we seek to define that the method of assessment of strain was sound.