Diffraction Line Broadening - Nuisance or Lattice- Imperfections Fingerprints*

Diffraction lines are broadened for two reasons: instrumental eonfigura tion and physical origins. The latter yields information on materials microstructure. The complete process of line-broadening analysis is discussed, beginning with experimental procedure s and a correction for instrumental broadening. In the analysis of the physically broadened line profile, the main emphasis is given to the widely used methods of separation of size and strain broadening: the Warren-Averbach approximation and integral-breadth methods. The integral-breadth methods are collated and their reliability discussed. Close attention is given to an assumed Vcigt-function profile shape for both size-broadened and strain-broadened profiles because it is shown that a Voigt function fits satisfactorily the physically broadened line profiles of W and MgO obtained by the Stokes-deconvolution method. The subsequent analyses of broadening are performed by using the Warren-Averbach and »doubleVoigt«approaches and results are compared.