Quantitative texture analysis from powder-like electron diffraction data

The textures of an Al thin film and of a-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 a-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 a-MnS nanocrystals, with maxima, for the (111) pole figures, of 8.8
and 19.7 m.r.d., respectively.