High-flux XRD keeps researchers at the forefront

UNSW recently purchased a 9 kW Rigaku SmartLab X-ray diffractometer for its Mark Wainwright Analytical Centre — a central analytical facility that brings together a vast array of measurement and characterisation equipment that enables researchers to carry out detailed analyses of their samples. The lab is heavily used, clocking up over 31,000 hours of X-ray time in 2016, which included training of over 150 researchers from areas such as materials science (particularly photovoltaics research), chemistry, geology, chemical and petroleum engineering and physics.

The SmartLab is said to be suitable for high-end research, combining high-intensity X-ray flux with a host of intelligent features that provide impressive analytical power and versatility. It is powered by Rigaku’s rotating anode technology, which is claimed to result in the highest X-ray flux of any homelab instrument. This allows faster, higher sample throughput and a good chance of detecting trace phases. Other key features include auto alignment, user-friendly guidance software, a host of optically encoded attachments and the ability to measure powders.

UNSW ordered the SmartLab TF (thin film variant) incorporating Rigaku’s in-plane arm, making it suitable for characterising thin films and coatings. This innovation allows a host of coating measurements to be taken quickly, providing more detail in less time about the structure, orientation, morphology and composition of thin films. As such, it will be invaluable to researchers involved in fields including solar cells, semiconductors, optoelectronics and biomaterials.

“The SmartLab was the best tool to enable high-throughput analysis of novel multilayer and epitaxial thin films designed for photovoltaics, electromechanical ferroelectrics and spintronics,” said Dr Chris Marjo, head of the centre’s solid state and elemental analysis unit. “Its unique thin-film analytical prowess provides additional valuable capabilities to our facility. The new instrument will provide structural data that will also complement our surface chemical analysis using photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS, UPS) and mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS).”

The product was supplied by AXT, Rigaku’s distributor in Australia and New Zealand. According to AXT Managing Director Richard Trett, the diffractometer’s high performance, analytical ability and versatility will help UNSW remain at the forefront of research.