X-ray diffraction line-broadening analysis was performed on highly textured Zr-2.5Nb specimens which had been deformed in tensile tests to produce well-controlled dislocation structures. An iterative deconvolution method was applied to extract the broadening function for the material, using as standards, a Zr single crystal and a 0% deformed specimen. In both cases, for specific tensile tests, a significant contribution to the basal line broadening was observed, which was clearly not directly related to the dislocation structure generated by the deformation, i.e., so-called c-component dislocations having a component of their Burgers vectors perpendicular to the basal plane. Calculations showed that the extent of basal line broadening could not be attributed to the

secondary effect of strain from a-type dislocations, i.e., dislocations with Burgers vectors parallel with the basal plane. It was concluded that most of the line broadening observed was the result of intergranular strain distributions. These distributions were most prominent for grains oriented with their c-axes perpendicular to the tensile-deformation axis and resulted in basal-plane line broadening even when there were few, if any, c-component dislocations present.

Determination of Dislocation Densities in HCP Metals from X-ray Diffraction Line-Broadening Analysis. M.Griffiths, D.Sage, R.A.Holt, C.N.Tome: Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A, 2002, 33[3A], 859-65