Outline

• Generation of X-Ray
• Working Principle of Filter
• Diffraction
• Structure factor
Generation of X-Ray
 Introduction
• X-rays were discovered in 1895 by the German physicist Röntgen.
• By placing a source of xrays on one side of the object and photographic film on the
other, a shadow picture, or radiograph, could be made, the less dense portions of
the object allowing a greater proportion of the x-radiation to pass through than the
more dense. In this way the point of fracture in a broken bone or the position of a
crack in a metal casting could be located
• it is ordinarily limited in the internal detail it can resolve, or disclose, to sizes of the
order of 10-3 mm
• it was not until 1912 that the exact nature of x-rays was established
• In that year the phenomenon of x-ray diffraction by crystals was discovered, and
this discovery simultaneously proved the wave nature of x-rays and provided a new
method for investigating the fine structure of matter
• Diffraction can indirectly reveal details of internal structure of the order of 10-7 mm
in size.
 X-Ray
• Today it is clear that x-rays are electromagnetic radiation of exactly the same nature as light but of
very much shorter wavelength
• x-rays used in diffraction have wavelengths lying approximately in the range 0.5-2.5 Å, whereas the
wavelength of visible light is of the order of 6000 Å
• Electromagnetic radiation, such as a beam of x-rays, carries energy, and the rate of flow of this
energy through unit area perpendicular to the direction of motion of the wave is called the intensity I
• An accelerated electric charge radiates energy. The acceleration may, of course, be either positive or
negative, and thus a charge continuously oscillating about some mean position acts as an excellent
source of electromagnetic radiation
X-Ray Tube
Characteristic radiation
Filter: Monochromatic X-Ray
Diffraction
Effect of Path difference
• Diffraction is due
essentially to the existence
of certain phase relations
between two or more waves

• Differences in the length of

the path traveled lead to
differences in phase

• The introduction of phase

differences produces a
change in amplitude
Bragg’s Law
 Bragg’s Law
• For most sets of crystal planes d´ is of the
order of 3 Å or less, which means that
cannot exceed about 6 Å.

• Since the coefficient of is now unity, areflection of

any order can be considered as a first-order reflection
from planes, real or fictitious, spaced at a distance
1/n of the previous spacing

• In general, nth-order diffraction from (hkl) with spacing d may be considered as a

first-order diffraction from (nh nk nl) with spacing d’= d /n.
• Note that this convention accords with the definition of Miller indices since (nh nk
nl) are the Miller indices of planes parallel to (hkl) but with 1/nth the spacing of the
latter.
 Scattering by an electron
• Since an electric field exerts a force on a charged particle such as an electron,
the oscillating electric field of an x-ray beam will set any electron it
encounters into oscillatory motion about its mean position
• The scattered beam has the same wavelength and frequency as the incident
beam and is said to be coherent with it, since there is a definite relationship
between the phase of the scattered beam and that of the incident beam which
produced it.
• The phase change on scattering from an electron is π/2.

• the Thomson equation for the scattering of an x-ray beam by a single electron

the scattered beam is stronger in forward or backward directions than in a

direction at right angles to the incident beam.
 Scattering by an atom
• When an x-ray beam encounters an atom, each electron in it scatters part of
the radiation coherently in accordance with the Thomson equation
• However, the nucleus has an extremely large mass relative to that of the
electron and cannot be made to oscillate to any appreciable extent
• if the scattering is in the forward direction, the waves scattered by all the
electrons of the atom are then in phase and the amplitudes of all the
scattered waves can be added directly
• the electrons of an atom are situated at different points in space introduces
differences in phase between the waves scattered by different electrons
 Scattering by an atom

• A quantity f, the atomic scattering factor (form factor), is used to describe the
“efficiency” of scattering of a given atom in a given direction. It is defined as a
ratio of amplitudes
• The waves scattered by
individual electrons
become more and more out
of phase and f decreases
 Scattering by an unit cell
• To arrive at an expression for the intensity of a diffracted beam, the coherent
scattering must be considered, not from an isolated atom but from all the atoms
making up the crystal
• If Bragg’s law is not satisfied, no diffracted beam can occur; however, Bragg’s law
may be satisfied for a certain set of atomic planes and yet no diffraction may occur

• Since the crystal is merely a repetition of the fundamental unit cell, it is enough to
consider the way in which the arrangement of atoms within a single unit cell

• the waves scattered by the individual atoms of a unit cell are not necessarily in
phase except in the forward direction, and determining how the phase difference
depends on the arrangement of the atoms is the problem at hand
Scattering by an unit cell
Structure Factor
BCC
FCC
NaCl
NaCl
Phase identification
HCP