Interference phenomena in nanocrystal- line materials and their application in the microstructure analysis

摘要

Microstructural analytical methods with a high spatial resolution are needed for microstructure studies on nanocrystalline materials and nanocomposites in order to be able to explain the relationship between the microstructure and properties on the nanoscale. Theo-retical considerations and experimental results presented in this contribution illustrate the capabilities of the X-ray diffraction that takes into account the phenomenon of the partial coherence of nanocrystallites for the microstructure analysis of nanostructured materials. The results obtained from X-ray diffraction were verified and complemented by the transmission electron microscopy with high resolution. Particularly, the use of the transmission electron microscopy in order to check the reliability of this X-ray diffraction approach is discussed. As experimental examples, nanocrystalline (Cr, Al) N coatings and boron nitride nanocom-posites are presented in this contribution.