The availability of high-precision diffractometers enables one to study in
detail the reciprocal space surrounding chosen Bragg reflections from small
crystals. Here we have applied three-dimensional reciprocal-space mapping
to study individual grains in polycrystalline chemical vapour deposited dia
mond grown on W and Mo substrates. Correlations between (a) the strain with
in grains and (b) the crystallite size and/or orientation (microtexture) ha
ve been investigated. The high angular resolution of the instrument has ena
bled us to isolate individual crystallites in reciprocal space. The reducti
on of the axial divergence reduces the size of the probe and hence partiall
y eliminates the projection effect.