X-ray microdiffraction analysis of radiation-induced defects in single grains of polycrystalline Fe

Abstract

Single-crystal diffuse X-ray scattering was analyzed to characterize radiation-induced defects in individual grains of a polycrystalline proton-irradiated Fe foil. The grains were probed with an intense submicron x-ray beam to demonstrated that both polycrystalline and micrometer-scale samples can be studied with single-crystal-like signal-to-noise. Scattering was measured with an x-ray sensitive area detector, which measures intensity over a surface in reciprocal space. By scanning the x-ray energy, intensity was measured over reciprocal-space volumes. Since the sample is not rotated, the real-space scattering volume does not change. We discuss methods to minimize experimental artifacts arising from the use of an area detector.