Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mphil-in-micro-and-nanotechnology-enterprise-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2017/paper-1/section-b/8/ii/solution

Choose cyclic reciprocal units, so the incident and elastically scattered wavevectors have magnitude . Place the reciprocal lattice origin at the end of the incident vector from the sphere centre . A reciprocal vector is excited when its endpoint lies on the Ewald sphere, because
A specimen tilt rotates the reciprocal lattice relative to this construction. The very short electron de Broglie wavelength makes the sphere nearly flat across several ordinary reciprocal-lattice spacings. In a thin foil, finite thickness broadens reciprocal points into reciprocal lattice rods approximately along the foil normal, with characteristic longitudinal extent . A rod may intersect the sphere even when its ideal point is slightly off it. Consequently several reflections can appear simultaneously near a zone axis, and thinning changes the excitation tolerance. A small particle has finite-size broadening in other directions too. This geometrical excitation condition does not guarantee a particular spot intensity: crystal basis structure factors, specimen thickness and dynamical diffraction still matter.
Figure 1.
Local Ewald sphere intersections and calculated fcc gold reflections
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