X-ray powder diffraction for the measurement of microstructure and local strain effects

Among the non-destructive techniques available for the analysis of polycrystalline materials, X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD) is probably the most mature and flexible one. The X-ray diffraction pattern bear in fact information both on the arrangement of atoms (including thermal vibration and ordering), and on the microstructure of the specimen under study. From the analysis of an XRPD pattern we can nowadays quantitatively extract information on the shape, size and size distribution of the crystalline domains and on the local lattice distortions. The recent advancements in the field, leading to the possibility of assessing quantity and character of the dislocations as well as the effect of grain boundaries from a single diffraction experiment performed on real and simulated nano polycrystalline aggregates will be illustrated.