A new diffractometer for materials science and imaging at HASYLAB beamline G3

A 4-circle diffractometer equipped with a novel imaging system has been installed at HASYLAB beamline G3. The imaging system comprising a microchannel plate (MCP) in front of a CCD detector allows position-resolved X-ray diffraction investigations of polycrystalline materials. Alternatively, a scintillation counter behind a Soller collimator can be used. Material properties like strain and/or texture can thus be determined either position resolved using the MCP/CCD system or in an averaging mode using the Soller/scintillator combination. The field of view of the MCP/CCD system is larger than 1 cm2 with a spatial resolution down to 12 μm. Both detection systems applied are aberration free. The spatial information can be directly extracted from pictures taken by the imaging system. Together with the wide field of view this method is especially suited for the investigation of dynamical processes in polycrystalline materials.