High Resolution X-Ray Diffractometry And Topography

The purpose of this book is to provide the theoretical and practical background necessary to the study of single-crystal materials by means of high resolution Xray diffractometry and topography. Whilst some of these techniques have been available for over fifty years, and the basic theory for even longer, it is in the last decade that they have grown enormously in importance, essentially for two technological reasons. On the one hand there has been the development of the powerful sources for scientific and industrial research: dedicated electron storage rings for synchrotron radiation, which have enabled the ideas and techniques developed in the earlier years to be applied and extended. On the other hand has been the industrial need for characterisation and control of the high-quality crystals that now form the heart of so many of the devices used for the electronics, communications and information engineering industries: integrated circuits, sensors, optoelectronic and electroacoustic devices and microprocessors. Techniques such as high resolution X-ray diffractometry, that for half a century were rather obscure research tools, are now in daily use for industrial quality control.