Siemens D5000 X-ray Diffractometer

X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) is a characterisation technique used for examining the fine structure of matter. It is used in the determination of crystal structure, qualitative phase identification, quantitative phase analysis, particle size and strain measurements, and study of preferred orientation in crystals. The MAU is equipped with a Siemens D5000 diffractometer which facilitates automatic measurement of up to 40 samples which is particularly suitable for routine analysis of a large number of samples. A grazing incidence attachment is also available on this diffractometer which allows measurements of thin films, surfaces and multilayers. Data analysis capabilities for XRD include the use of the ICDD-JCPDS CD-ROM database consisting of more than 120,000 patterns for qualitative phase identification, as well as the SIROQUANT software package (Rietveld refinement method) for crystal structure determination and quantitative phase analysis.