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The nanodiffraction problem
Author(s) -
Xiong Shangmin,
Öztürk Hande,
Lee Seung-Yub,
Mooney Patricia M.,
Noyan Ismail Cevdet
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
journal of applied crystallography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.429
H-Index - 162
ISSN - 1600-5767
DOI - 10.1107/s1600576718007719
Subject(s) - diffraction , nanocrystalline material , inverse , lattice (music) , lattice constant , materials science , systematic error , standard deviation , x ray crystallography , power law , optics , computational physics , relative standard deviation , condensed matter physics , physics , statistical physics , mathematics , statistics , geometry , nanotechnology , detection limit , acoustics
The results of a systematic rigorous study on the accuracy of lattice parameters computed from X‐ray diffraction patterns of ideally perfect nanocrystalline powder and thin‐film samples are presented. It is shown that, if the dimensions of such samples are below 20 nm, the lattice parameters obtained from diffraction analysis will deviate from their true values. The relative deviation depends on the relevant size parameter through an inverse power law and, for particular reflections, depends on the angular peak positions. This size‐dependent error, Δ a / a , is larger than the precision of typical X‐ray diffraction measurements for ∼20 nm‐thick diffracting domains, and it can be several orders of magnitude larger for particles smaller than 5 nm.