The Department of Chemistry has purchased and installed a very versatile and powerful Rigaku SmartLab Powder X-ray Diffractometer.
This instrument is equipped with a high brilliance 9 kW rotating anode X-ray tube (Cu radiation; the source can be switched to Mo radiation if necessary), which provides about 5 times higher flux compared to a conventional 1.8 kW sealed X-ray tube. X-ray detection is performed with a low noise HyPix-3000 detector, which has a wide dynamic range and can work in 0D, 1D and 2D modes. Most measurements can be done in a range from room temperature to 1100 oC.
The main areas of application include:
- Standard powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) analysis for powders and flat samples using Bragg-Brentano, parallel and convergent beam setups. The powders can be placed in flat sample holders or in capillaries. All kinds of films and bulk samples with a flat surface can be measured as well. The primary use of this mode is phase identification and quantitative phase analysis but higher angular resolution also allows determination/refinement of lattice constant, crystallite size/microstrain analysis and crystal structure determination.
- Pole figures can be automatically measured for several reflections to produce orientation distribution function (ODF) and determine preferred orientations of crystallites in films and bulk samples.
- Microdiffraction PXRD patterns can be automatically collected from a series of positions (the smallest irradiated area is 0.4 mm) identified with an optical microscope.
- High resolution X-ray diffraction (HR XRD) and X-ray reflectivity (XRR) can be performed for thin (down to a very few nm) films in order to determine film thickness, in and out of plane misfit and stress relaxation, film composition, density, surface and interface roughness.
- Small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) can be used to quantify the nanoscale density differences and thus to determine the particle, grain and pore size distribution in solid and liquid materials.
- 2D in-plane and out-of-plane small and wide angle scattering (SAXS and WAXS) provide information on the structure of the surface layers of a flat sample and its relationship to the bulk of the sample.
- Pair distribution function (PDF) determination (when Mo anode is installed) and simulations can be done to establish atomic structures of nanomaterials.
Interested in using this newly added XRD instrument? Contact the X-ray facility manager for more information or to arrange training/access.
The Rigaku SmartLab Powder X-ray Diffractometer was purchased with funding provided by New York University.