Low-temperature Debye-Scherrer powder diffraction on Beamline I11 at Diamond

• Published in: Journal of applied crystallography Vol. 46; no. 3; pp. 826 - 828
• Main Authors: Potter, J., Parker, J. E., Lennie, A. R., Thompson, S. P., Tang, C. C.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 5 Abbey Square, Chester, Cheshire CH1 2HU, England International Union of Crystallography 01-06-2013; Blackwell Publishing Ltd
• Subjects: Aluminum; Cold heading; Debye Scherrer method; Debye-Scherrer geometry; Diffraction; Geometry; Helium; Low temperature physics; low-temperature X-ray powder diffraction; Powder metallurgy; Sample holders; Silicon; Synchrotrons
• ISSN: 1600-5767; 0021-8898; 1600-5767
• DOI: 10.1107/S0021889813006912

A bespoke capillary sample holder is described that attaches to the cold head of a commercially manufactured (PheniX) closed‐cycle helium cryostat originally intended for flat‐plate geometry. The new holder allows high‐resolution synchrotron powder diffraction data to be collected from samples in Debye–Scherrer geometry over the temperature range 11–295 K. To demonstrate that high‐quality powder data can be obtained using this new sample holder, structural refinement (Rietveld) and thermal expansion results measured from reference samples (Si and Al) are presented.