LAO, Tiffany Louise Billate

2012-44674
MS Materials Science and Engineering

Stereographic Projection and Diffraction of X-Rays

For the past two meetings, stereographic projection, and the introduction of x-ray diffraction
had been discussed. As recalled, stereographic projection is a two-dimensional representation of
crystal planes. Constructing lines normal to the crystal planes and extending these to the spherical
enclosure would make poles. Connecting these poles (P) with the point of projection (PR), and
extending line P-PR on the projection plane would result to a distinguishable pattern of points. This
pattern is dependent on the: (1) center plane that is the crystal plane parallel to the projection plane,
and (2) the location of the North-East-West-South on the projection plane (Wulff Net). These
dependency is the reason why all movements of the poles are reflections of the movements made by
the chosen axis, e.g. If the chosen pole axis is moved by 10 from east to west, all other points in the
projection plane will do the same movement.

For the latter topic, which is the first part of the x-ray diffraction, Braggs Law was proven and
used as a reference to discuss the relationship between thickness of the sample and the x-ray
diffraction (XRD) peaks. As discussed, a thicker sample would result to a peak with a thinner FWHM
(full width at half maximum)

MSE 225 September 27, 2017 Assessment Paper # 3