Micro-X-Ray Diffractometer Focused by Polycapillary Optics and Its Applications for Materials

Abstract The analysis of small samples and micro areas of large samples are significant in material, environment and geology fields. This work reports the study of a micro-X-ray diffractometer developed by our laboratory and its applications for not only micro-X-ray diffraction (μ-XRD) analysis but also micro energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (μ-EDXRF) analysis. The accomplishment of the two analysis methods in one instrument makes it possible to characterize micro materials in situ by a very efficient way. In order to demonstrate the feasibility of this diffractometer, the samples difficult to be measured by the conventional diffractometer were studied. Firstly, a cooper wire with a diameter of 140 μm was analysed as a micro sample. Then two different points of a TiN film were analysed to discuss their phase transitions in micro areas. Moreover, the phase distribution of a two-dimensional area on an iPhone mainboard was scanned. The phase mapping was acquired by data processing. These researches highlight the abilities of this diffractometer in the applications on micro material characterizations. As a result, this diffractometer can adapt to the analyses of elemental composition, mineralogical composition and their distributions in the micro materials. It can also provide useful reference information for the micro phase transitions. Therefore, it can be concluded that this micro-X-ray diffractometer has potential prospect in the micro material analysis and any other related fields.