Correcting intensity loss errors in the absence of texture-free reference samples during pole figure measurement

• Sample tilting during X-ray pole figure measurement leads to intensity loss errors.
• Texture-free reference samples are typically used to correct the pole figures.
• An empirical correction procedure is proposed in the absence of reference samples.
• The procedure relies on reference samples that pre-exist in any texture laboratory.
• Experimentally and empirically corrected textures are in very good agreement.

Even with the use of X-ray polycapillary lenses, sample tilting during pole figure measurement results in a decrease in the recorded X-ray intensity. The magnitude of this error is affected by the sample size and/or the finite detector size. These errors can be typically corrected by measuring the intensity loss as a function of the tilt angle using a texture-free reference sample (ideally made of the same alloy as the investigated material). Since texture-free reference samples are not readily available for all alloys, the present study employs an empirical procedure to estimate the correction curve for a particular experimental configuration. It involves the use of real texture-free reference samples that pre-exist in any X-ray diffraction laboratory to first establish the empirical correlations between X-ray intensity, sample tilt and their Bragg angles and thereafter generate correction curves for any Bragg angle. It will be shown that the empirically corrected textures are in very good agreement with the experimentally corrected ones.