A new diffractometer for materials science and imaging at HASYLAB beamlineG3

A di-circle diffractometer equipped with a novel imaging system has been in stalled at HASYLAB beamline G3. The imaging system comprising a microchanne l plate (MCP) in front of a CCD detector allows position-resolved X-ray dif fraction investigations of polycrystalline materials. Alternatively, a scin tillation counter behind a Seller collimator can be used. Material properti es like strain and/or texture can thus be determined either position resolv ed using the MCP/CCD system or in an averaging mode using the Soller/scinti llator combination. The field of view of the MCP/CCD system is larger than 1 cm(2) with a spatial resolution down to 12 mu m. Both detection systems a pplied are aberration free. The spatial information can be directly extract ed from pictures taken by the imaging system. Together with the wide field of view this method is especially suited for the investigation of dynamical processes in polycrystalline materials. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.