A Review of High-Energy X-Ray Diffraction from Glasses and Liquids

Abstract

This paper summarizes the scientific trends associated with the rapid development of the technique of high-energy X-ray diffraction over the past decade pertaining to the field of liquids, glasses, and amorphous materials. The measurement of high-quality X-ray structure factors out to large momentum transfers leads to high-resolution pair distribution functions which can be directly compared to theory or combined with data from other experimental techniques. The advantages of combining highly penetrating radiation with low angle scattering are outlined together with the data analysis procedure and formalism. Also included are advances in high-energy synchrotron beamline instrumentation, sample environment equipment, and an overview of the role of simulation and modeling for interpreting data from disordered materials. Several examples of recent trends in glass and liquid research are described. Finally, directions for future research are considered within the context of past and current developments in the field.

Structural and dynamical properties of Mg65Cu25Y10 metallic glasses studied by in situ high energy X-ray diffraction and time resolved X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy

“…1 (a) after the background subtraction and standard data reduction to absolute units. Specifically, the reduction is performed by subtracting from the measured intensity I(q)=Imeas-tIbkg (being t the transmission of the sample), a form factor f 2 (q) approximating the electron density, the Compton scattering contribution, C(q) [22], and then normalizing to an average form factor:…”

Determination of the structure of liquids: an asymptotic approach

“…While in modern synchrotron-based X-ray diffraction measurements the limited range may no longer be a restriction, it remains very important in neutron diffraction experiments and even in some X-ray diffraction-based measurements (e.g. Yu et al, 2012;Bellissent-Funel et al, 1989;Benmore, 2012). In practice, owing to experimental noise and other effects, the structure factor is often truncated at some cutoff wavevector, q co < q max .…”

“…Finally, most neutron scattering measurements reduce to noise beyond 10 Å À1 , effectively limiting the experimental range. The advent of synchrotron X-ray sources has enabled measurement of the structure factor to 20 Å À1 and beyond (Benmore, 2012), but still many, if not most, studies extend only to shorter wavevectors. Aspects of high-energy X-ray diffraction from glasses and liquids have been recently reviewed by Benmore (2012).…”

Measurement and Modeling of Short and Medium Range Order in Amorphous Ta2O5 Thin Films

“…Neutron, electron and x-ray scattering have long been used to study disordered materials including liquids, glasses and amorphous materials1415. Despite the power of these techniques, it is extremely challenging to obtain high quality PDF from sub-micron thick amorphous films due to low scattering volume and contamination of the total scattering signal from the substrate.…”