High energy x-ray diffraction/x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy for high-throughput analysis of composition spread thin films

High-throughput crystallography is an important tool in materials research, particularly for the rapid assessment of structure-property relationships. We present a technique for simultaneous acquisition of diffraction images and fluorescence spectra on a continuous composition spread thin film using a 60 keV x-ray source. Subsequent noninteractive data processing provides maps of the diffraction profiles, thin film fiber texture, and composition. Even for highly textured films, our diffraction technique provides detection of diffraction from each family of Bragg reflections, which affords direct comparison of the measured profiles with powder patterns of known phases. These techniques are important for high throughput combinatorial studies as they provide structure and composition maps which may be correlated with performance trends within an inorganic library. (C) 2009 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3274179]