An X‐ray cylindrical texture camera for the examination of thin films

X-ray diffraction cameras in which the diffraction pattern is recorded on a cylindrical photographic film coaxial with the incident beam have previously been used to make measurements of preferred orientations in polycrystalline materials by Kratky (1930), Wooster (1948), Mackay (1953) and Richards (1964). The diffraction cones of constant 20 intersect the recording film in straight lines. These may then be scanned with a linear densitometer to yield intensity distributions characteristic of the preferred orientation, allowing for the effects of X-ray absorption in the specimen. The uniaxial textures of continuously rotated drawn wires and graphite specimens, mounted normal to the camera axis, have been studied by Mackay (1953) and Richards (1964). The more complex moving-film method of Wooster (1948) has been used to plot the pole figures of rolled sheets. The cylindrical texture camera described here employs a fiat specimen inclined to the incident X-ray beam, which, as in the above cases, is along the cylinder axis. The camera is particularly applicable to the crystallographic examination of thin crystalline films deposited on flat substrates. It is capable of detecting and identifying very thin deposits and of characterizing the type of preferred orientation that may have occurred. For cases where orientation effects are not pronounced, consideration of the specimen absorption factors provides information about layer thickness and order of deposition when more than one layer is present.