Shape and size of non-spherical particles in single crystals, investigated by SAXS

Abstract
The analysis of small-angle scattering (SAS) from single crystalline alloys provides a high quality of information on decomposing systems : size, shape and orientation of particles can be determined from three dimensional SAS data of single crystals. Adequate evaluation procedures for SAS data from single crystals are, e.g., simulations of two dimensional (2D) scattering patterns and evaluation of slices along special directions in reciprocal space. These techniques, which allow the full exploitation of the instrumental resolution, are demonstrated with the examples of ellipsoidal and plate-like precipitates in alloys. In favourable cases the upper sensitivity limit can be increased up to 4000 Å at a sample to detector distance of only 1m.