Pole Figure Integrator

Abstract

A device, applicable to samples with fiber texture, is used on a diffractometer to average the diffracted x‐ray intensities representing values on a pole figure. In the process, the fiber axis is rotated end‐over‐end continuously at a constant rate through an angle φ which is also the colatitude coordinate of the pole figure. To convert the time average of the intensity to a space average over the pole figure, the instantaneous intensity is multiplied by a factor |sin φ|; this factor is generated by a rotating variable attenuating filter located in the path of the incident beam. When the diffraction angle is varied at a uniform rate during this process, the resulting scan is equivalent to a diffractometer pattern of the sample material with random orientation. By using, in addition, a similar scan made with an attenuating filter generating the function cos²φ|sinφ|, an orientation parameter 〈cos²φ〉 can be easily evaluated for plane normals, crystal axes, and molecular axes.