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 TOOLS & INSTRUMENTS

The Divergent Beam Diffractometer Laboratory
    
  Image of DBDThe NIST DBD, configured with the Johansson optic.
                    Credit:
          
  James Cline
  
      The Divergent Beam Diffractometer is the primary instrument at NIST used to certify powder SRMs for their X-ray diffraction properties.  It is a custom-built instrument which provides a very highly-characterized angular scale in a well-controlled environment.  It is a Bragg-Brentano instrument, usable with either open beam from a fine-focus copper X-ray tube, or using monochromated beam from a Ge(111) Johansson optic.  The properties of this instrument are documented in a paper .

The DBD is equipped with a sample rotation stage that offers a precision in sample placement of better than 5 microns, critical for the operation of this instrument.  Its rotation bearing is greater than 10 cm in diameter and the samples are retained magnetically.  Recently installed was a robot arm that allows for remote sample changes.  Two features of this arm are critical for its successful use in this application: The samples are retained with a vacuum chuck and the arm is both stiff and precise.  These two features allow its use with our stage, with its magnetically retained samples, while assuring that powder samples are not disturbed during transfer.
                  Reference materials
  
            Organizations
      
      NIST HeadquartersLaboratory ProgramsMaterial Measurement LaboratoryMaterials Measurement Science DivisionNanomechanical Properties GroupMaterials Structure and Data Group
              Details
          Campus
                    Gaithersburg
              Contact
      
        

James P. Cline
    
      
  james.cline@nist.gov
  (301) 975-5793

  Marcus Mendenhall
    
      
  marcus.mendenhall@nist.gov
  (301) 975-8631

  David R Black
    
      
  david.black@nist.gov
  (301) 975-5976

    
    Created August 3, 2017, Updated April 28, 2023
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