Speaker
Description
Within the MASS-PRAM project, a new Anton Paar XRDynamic 500 X-ray diffractometer was acquired at the Institute of Physics, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice for the structural characterization of various materials. The instrument operates with Cu-K$\alpha$ radiation and allows goniometer configurations with radii of 360 mm and 400 mm.
The performance of the diffractometer was evaluated using the standard reference material LaB$_{6}$. The dependence of angular resolution on the goniometer radius, optical and slit configurations was investigated. The obtained results demonstrated that the choice of experimental configuration significantly affects the diffraction peak width and overall angular resolution of the diffraction patterns. The analysis of the Instrumental Resolution Function (IRF) revealed a systematic increase in the full width at half maximum (FWHM) with increasing diffraction angle for all tested configurations. Configurations employing a slit aperture of 0.025 rad exhibited lower FWHM values throughout the entire measured angular range. The best angular resolution was achieved using the monochromator, 0.025 rad slits, and a 400 mm radius goniometer, where the width of the first diffraction peak of the LaB$_{6}$ reference sample reached approximately 0.024°. Furthermore, the IRF analysis demonstrated that the combination of the monochromator and 0.025 rad slits leads to a systematic improvement in angular resolution across the full range of measured diffraction angles.
The capabilities of the instrument were further demonstrated on several materials. Crystalline CeO$_{2}$ demonstrated the quality of the diffraction patterns. Fluorescence Reduction applied to the amorphous ribbon Fe$_{25}$Sc$_{75}$ suppressed the fluorescence background and improved the signal-to-noise ratio. Nanostructured materials exhibited detectable diffraction reflections even at very low crystalline phase content. SAXS measurements of SBA-15 revealed characteristic reflections of its ordered pore structure.
The presented results confirm the high flexibility and broad application potential of the Anton Paar XRDynamic 500 diffractometer and demonstrate the new experimental capabilities.
Acknowledgements
This study was funded by the EU NextGenerationEU through the Recovery and Resilience Plan for Slovakia under the project No. 09I03-03-V03-00034.
