Quantitative texture analysis from powder-like electron diffraction data

The textures of an Al thin film and of alpha-MnS nanocrystals deposited on a carbon film grid have been analysed using powder electron diffraction. For each sample a series of powder electron diffraction patterns tilted with respect to two orthogonal axes were collected, to adapt to this type of data the texture analysis procedures commonly used in synchrotron X-ray transmission geometry. Both pattern sets have been analysed with the Rietveld procedure embedded in the software MAUD. The fit is satisfactory with agreement factors of 7.03% for the Al film and 3.42% for alpha-MnS and reveals in both cases a (111) preferred orientation with a pronounced cylindrical symmetry. The (111) and (100) pole figures, plotted in terms of multiples of random distribution (m.r.d.), show a fairly strong lattice preferred orientation in the Al thin film and a stronger one in the deposited alpha-MnS nanocrystals, with maxima, for the (111) pole figures, of 8.8 and 19.7 m.r.d., respectively.