Multipurpose X-ray Diffractometer
General Information
The Multipurpose X‑ray Diffractometer at the CNR‑ICMATE unit is a highly versatile instrument designed for the structural and microstructural characterization of a wide range of materials. It enables the acquisition of both wide‑angle (WAXS) and small‑angle (SAXS) diffraction data from bulk specimens, powders, thin films, multilayers, epitaxial coatings, and nanostructured systems.
Measurements can be performed in reflection, grazing‑incidence, or transmission geometry, allowing optimal adaptation to sample morphology, thickness, and crystallinity.
Flat substrates and capillaries can be mounted with ease, supporting conventional and advanced sample environments. The collected diffraction patterns provide detailed information on crystal structure, phase composition, lattice parameters, crystallite size, microstrain, and the thickness or periodicity of thin layers and multilayer stacks.
The system is equipped with an Eulerian cradle that enables precise control of sample orientation, facilitating the investigation of preferred orientation, texture evolution, and residual stress in both bulk materials and thin films. This capability is essential for understanding anisotropy, processing effects, and mechanical performance in engineered materials. The diffractometer’s modular configuration supports a variety of optical components, detectors, and beam conditioning elements, ensuring high measurement flexibility and reproducibility.
Overall, the platform offers a comprehensive solution for advanced diffraction studies, enabling researchers and industrial partners to correlate structural features with functional properties across diverse material classes.
Technical description
The Multipurpose X‑ray Diffractometer at the CNR‑ICMATE unit is a highly flexible platform designed for advanced structural and microstructural analysis of diverse material systems. It features a 240 mm radius θ–θ goniometer equipped with a Cu X‑ray tube, enabling the acquisition of both wide‑angle (WAXS) and small‑angle (SAXS) diffraction data from bulk materials, powders, thin films, multilayers, and epitaxial layers. Measurements can be performed in reflection or transmission geometry, the latter suitable for transparent samples or capillaries. The incident‑beam optics include a monochromator mirror that fully suppresses Cu Kβ radiation, programmable divergence slits and masks for flat samples, and a parabolic mirror optimized for experiments on rotating capillaries. An Eulerian cradle extends the system’s capabilities to texture analysis and residual‑stress determination in bulk and thin‑film specimens. It can be combined with an Anton Paar DHS1100 domed hot stage, enabling non‑ambient measurements under vacuum or controlled atmosphere up to 1100 °C. The diffracted‑beam path hosts two detectors: a proportional point detector with parallel‑beam collimator for grazing‑incidence and reflectometry studies, and a solid‑state 2D detector with 256×256 pixels covering 3°×3°, allowing fast data collection and ultrafast reciprocal‑space mapping for detailed characterization of epitaxial structures.
Research areas and applications
Structural and microstructural characterization of materials. The obtainable information includes crystal structure. cell parameters, crystalline domain size, microstrain, residual stress, texture.
Science highlights
Experimental team
- Filippo Agresti
- CNR-ICMATE
- Researcher