This article describes complete characterization of the polygonal dislocation half‐loops (PDHLs) introduced by scratching and subsequent bending of an Si(111) crystal. The study is based on the X‐ray topo‐tomography technique using both a conventional laboratory setup and the high‐resolution X‐ray image‐detecting systems at the synchrotron facilities at KIT (Germany) and ESRF (France). Numerical analysis of PDHL images is performed using the Takagi–Taupin equations and the simultaneous algebraic reconstruction technique (SART) tomographic algorithm.

Bent crystals can be used to deflect high‐energy charged particles for beam extraction and/or beam collimation at accelerator facilities, thanks to the channelling phenomenon. In the present paper, two perfect silicon mono‐crystals were bent using two different methods: sandblasting and the application of a carbon fibre composite. In particular, these samples were obtained for the realization of bent crystal prototypes to be used to steer the 7 TeV proton beam of the Large Hadron Collider in the context of the CRYSBEAM project. The two bending methods were selected since they allow a very homogeneous curvature of the crystals to be obtained, which is essential for high channelling efficiency. Moreover, the deformation obtained is self‐standing, i.e. there is no need for any external device to keep the samples bent. Self‐standing curvature can be useful because the presence of an external bender could be a severe limitation in the collider beam‐pipe. The curvature of the samples was measured through high‐energy X‐ray diffraction at the ID11 beamline of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble, France. Since the diffraction efficiencies obtained were in good agreement with theoretical expectations, it follows that the manufacturing techniques did not damage the samples, i.e. the crystallographic quality was preserved. Finally, the crystal quality of the sandblasted sample was investigated in detail at the synchrotron source at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology by X‐ray white‐beam topography. The measurements showed no diffusion of defects from the machined surfaces to the crystal bulk.

The dislocation evolution in a cross-section a-plane cut through a sublimation-grown aluminum nitride (AlN) crystal grown with low-temperature gradients and subsequent low thermal stress is investigated with different X-ray diffraction imaging methods. Exploiting the so-called weak-beam contrast using monochromatic X-rays in combination with suitable three-dimensional (3D) interpretation and reconstruction allows the identification of individual dislocations as well as tracing their progression in the crystal volume, even in the considerably strained interface region. It is particularly striking that the laterally grown crystal volume is dislocation-free. The dislocation densities in the seed and the bulk volume are similar (1 × 103 cm–2), but while the dislocations in the seed are randomly arranged, the dislocations in the bulk volume show a uniform line shape, indicating a common mechanism of dislocation movement. Since the dislocation slings in the bulk do not lie in slip planes, it can be concluded that the lateral movement does not result from dislocation glide, but from impurity-driven climb of dislocations during growth. The absence of slip can be explained by the low-temperature gradients and the subsequent low thermal stress below the critical resolved shear stress (CRSS).