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Effect of Stacking Faults on the X‐ray Diffraction Profiles of β‐SiC Powders
Author(s) -
Pujar Vijay V.,
Cawley James D.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
journal of the american ceramic society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.9
H-Index - 196
eISSN - 1551-2916
pISSN - 0002-7820
DOI - 10.1111/j.1151-2916.1995.tb08246.x
Subject(s) - diffraction , stacking , materials science , stacking fault , intensity (physics) , fault (geology) , crystallography , x ray crystallography , crystal (programming language) , mineralogy , computational physics , geology , dislocation , optics , composite material , chemistry , physics , computer science , seismology , nuclear magnetic resonance , programming language
X‐ray diffraction patterns of β‐SiC (3C or the cubic polytype of SiC) powders often exhibit an additional peak at d = 0.266 nm, high background intensity around the (111) peak, and relative intensities for peaks which differ from those predicted from the crystal structure. Computer simulations were used to show that all these features are due to stacking faults in the powders and not due to the presence of other polytypes in the powders. Such simulations allow diffraction patterns to be generated for different types, frequencies, and spatial distribution of faults. Comparison of thesimulation results to the XRD data indicates that the β‐SiC particles consist either of heavily faulted clusters distributed irregularly between regions that have only occasional faults or twins, or the powders consist of two types of particles with different populations of faults: those with a high density of faults and those with only twins or occasional faults. Additional information is necessary to determine which description is correct. However, the simulation results can be used to rule out certain fault configurations.