STRUCTURAL CHARACTERIZATION OF MATERIALS BY COMBINING X-RAY-DIFFRACTION SPACE MAPPING AND TOPOGRAPHY

Recent advances in X-ray diffraction has aided the interpretation and extended the possibilities in structural analysis of materials. By cre ating a ''delta-function like'' diffraction space probe the 3-dimensio nal shape of the scattering form from a crystalline sample can be dete rmined. Previously we have been restricted to ''pseudo'' 1-dimensional scans requiring assumptions about the material properties or probes w ith complex instrument artifacts complicating the interpretation. This additional flexibility has increased the ease of interpretation since different scattering features are isolated. This has been further enh anced by using the same probe to perform topography therefore the scat tering features can be related directly to topographic images of defec ts, etc. This has increased our understanding of the origins of diffus e scattering and improved our understanding of the diffraction shapes. Because of the high resolution obtainable unexpected features have be en revealed and the combination with topography has helped in the unde rstanding of their origin. The basics of the methods are covered and i llustrated with a few examples of the applications for such an instrum ent.