Abstract
Pole figures in the classical sense are defined by the integral intensities of Bragg reflections. The conventional technique of pole figure measurement uses a single detector (usually a scintillation counter) with a wide receiving slit where the integral intensity of a given Bragg reflection is obtained directly. The usage of a position sensitive detector instead of a single detector allows to measure whole diffraction profiles simultaneously. Integral intensities of the diffraction peaks can then be obtained mathematically using peak profile analysis both on overlapped (profile deconvolution) and separated (profile fitting) reflections.The peak profile analysis provides, besides the integral intensity, also several other peak parameters characterizing an individual (hkl)-reflection. These are the peak maximum intensity, peak position or peak shift, peak width or peak shape parameters, the local peak background, as well as the fitting error. The availability of all these peak profile parameters in each sample position allows to define and plot new generalized “pole figures”. Besides the texture information contained in the integral intensity pole figures these generalized pole figures contain information about different other microstructural quantities, e.g. particle size, lattice strain, diffuse scattering and amorphous phases. Fitting error pole figures can be interpreted as a measure of the experimental accuracy and profile fitting effectivity.Some examples of conventional integral intensity pole figures and generalized diffraction profile pole figures in metal and polymer samples are presented.