Advances in line profile analysis for the study of nanocrystalline systems

A new approach to the study of diffraction line profiles is briefly described and applied to a nanocrystalline cerium oxide powder. Results are compared with those obtained by traditional line profile analysis, like the Williamson-Hall plot and the Warren-Averbach method. The proposed approach is proven to be particularly suited to study finely dispersed systems like nanocrystalline oxides and heavily deformed materials as it provides deep and reliable information on the crystalline domain size distribution and lattice defects.