Visualizing the fibre texture of satin spar using laboratory 2D X-ray diffraction

Xiaodong Tony Wang; Christoph Schrank; Michael Jones

doi:10.1107/S1600576724000529

Visualizing the fibre texture of satin spar using laboratory 2D X-ray diffraction

J Appl Crystallogr. 2024 Feb 12;57(Pt 2):240-247. doi: 10.1107/S1600576724000529. eCollection 2024 Apr 1.

Authors

Xiaodong Tony Wang^{1

2}, Christoph Schrank^{3

4

5}, Michael Jones^{1

2

5

6}

Affiliations

¹ Central Analytical Research Facility, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland 4001, Australia.
² Centre for Materials Science, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland 4001, Australia.
³ School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland 4001, Australia.
⁴ Centre for Data Science, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland 4001, Australia.
⁵ Planetary Surface Exploration Group, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland 4001, Australia.
⁶ School of Chemistry and Physics, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland 4001, Australia.

Abstract

The suitability of point focus X-ray beam and area detector techniques for the determination of the uniaxial symmetry axis (fibre texture) of the natural mineral satin spar is demonstrated. Among the various diffraction techniques used in this report, including powder diffraction, 2D pole figures, rocking curves looped on φ and 2D X-ray diffraction, a single simple symmetric 2D scan collecting the reciprocal plane perpendicular to the apparent fibre axis provided sufficient information to determine the crystallographic orientation of the fibre axis. A geometrical explanation of the 'wing' feature formed by diffraction spots from the fibre-textured satin spar in 2D scans is provided. The technique of wide-range reciprocal space mapping restores the 'wing' featured diffraction spots on the 2D detector back to reciprocal space layers, revealing the nature of the fibre-textured samples.

Keywords: 2D X-ray diffraction; WR-RSM; fibre texture; gypsum; satin spar; wide-range reciprocal space mapping.