High throughput X-ray diffraction analysis of combinatorial polycrystalline thin film libraries

With the increasing demand for new materials, analytical techniques which are able to rapidly characterize a large number of samples are becoming indispensable. Thin film technology has the potential to improve the amount of information contained on as-deposited samples by creating compositionally graded libraries. Conventionally, raster scan methods are used to interrogate such libraries but, in this paper, a different approach is presented to provide a method of high-throughput data collection and analysis using an X-ray diffraction (XRD) probe. An extended X-ray beam was used to illuminate the libraries, and a large area detector was used to collect the data. A new algorithm "Bandit" has been employed to analyze the collected data and extract the crystallographic information. The results of the technique have been compared with the raster scans showing that the algorithm provides reliable data at a significantly increased data acquisition speed.