X-Ray Diffraction

X-ray diffraction (XRD) is a non-destructive technique used to analyze and determine the internal structure, physical properties or chemical composition of a wide range of samples. It is done by illuminating a sample with a collimated beam of x-rays and collecting the scattered radiation pattern with a detector. XRD can be applied to many different types of materials, e.g., metals, proteins, polymers, thin films, and pharmaceuticals.

In order to collect high-resolution information to reconstruct the 3D sample structure, it is often required to record the diffraction pattern from as many as a several hundred different angles by rotating the sample. Using a conventional microfocus x-ray source the combined exposure time easily exceeds 10 hours.

By switching to an extreme-brightness microfocus x-ray source from Excillum this can be reduced by a factor of 10, making it possible to examine several samples per day.