X-Ray Topography

Certain commercial entities, equipment, or materials may be identified in this document in order to describe an experimental procedure or concept adequately. Such identification is not intended to imply recommendation or endorsement by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, nor is it intended to imply that the entities, materials, or equipment are necessarily the best available for the purpose. iii FOREWORD The study of the interrelationships between processing, structure and properties of materials is fundamental to the field of materials science and engineering. The need to understand the microstructure of materials has driven the development of a wide variety of x-ray based characterization techniques. While X-ray topography is a very powerful tool for the evaluation of crystals for technological applications and for many areas of crystal and thin-film growth and processing, it is perhaps less well known and, therefore, has historically been underutilized in the United States. The aim of this guide is to raise the awareness of X-ray topography and, therefore, make modern x-ray topography techniques more accessible to materials scientists who would benefit by obtaining the rich variety of microstructural information it offers. The basic principles and practical aspects of topography are discussed and demonstrated through examples to help illustrate the diverse applications of this technique. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The authors are indebted to Harold Burdette who collaborated on most of the examples shown in this Practice Guide. X-ray topography would not have been possible at NBS/NIST were it not for the vision of Masao Kuriyama, who built the original NBS/NIST x-ray topography laboratory, and the many efforts of our early collaborators: