The highly-collimated, intense X-rays produced by a synchrotron radiation source can be harnessed to build high-resolution powder diffraction instruments with a wide variety of applications. The general advantages of using synchrotron radiation for powder diffraction are discussed and illustrated with reference to the structural characterisation of crystalline materials, atomic PDF analysis, in-situ and high-throughput studies where the structure is evolving between successive scans, and the measurement of residual strain in engineering components.
A photographic Weissenberg camera has been constructed which can be mounted on the 2θ arm of a four-circle diffractometer. At a distance of 0.5 m from the sample the 2θ resolution for a 100 μm crystal is 0.2 mrad (0.01°), allowing a high-resolution mapping of reciprocal space at a synchrotron source in an efficient way. As sample experimental results, a study is presented of the streak system around the 111 reflection of a perfect germanium crystal and the detection of a minute phase transformation in a single-powder grain of a high-Tc
superconductor.
High-resolution microdiffraction study of notch-tip deformation in Mo single crystals using x-ray synchrotron radiation