Elements of X-Ray Diffraction (Addison-Wesley series in metallurgy and materials) [Hardcover]

Bernard Dennis Cullity (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1978 | ISBN-10: 0201011743 | ISBN-13: 978-0201011746 | Edition: 2nd

Intended to acquaint the reader with the theory of x-ray diffraction, the experimental methods involved, and the main applications. The book is a collection of principles and methods stressing X-ray diffraction rather than metallurgy. The book is written entirely in terms of the Bragg law and can be read without any knowledge of the reciprocal lattice. It is divided into three main parts—Fundamentals; experimental methods; and applications. Designed for beginners, not as a reference tool for the advanced reader.

--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Preface

This edition appears over twenty years after the Second Edition was released. That the Second Edition, without revision, continued as a popular materials text and as a reference book is a tribute to Professor Cullity's clarity and thoroughness.

Instrumentation and techniques have changed considerably, however, in the intervening twenty years, engendered by the revolution in distributed computing heralded by the advent of the personal computer. In the Fall of 1973, for example, I ran BASIC programs from one of many teletypes connected to a single PDP-8 computer with 8 Bytes of memory. I recently came across loan papers from 1984 for my personal computer (256 Bytes RAM, no hard drive). Analyses which required graphical solution before computers or very astute programming in the first digital decades now can be done using spreadsheets packaged with word processing software; the earlier approaches are no longer of interest, except perhaps to historians.

With changes in instruments came changes in the types of x-ray diffraction experiments a materials scientist/engineer might be required to perform (or at least to interpret). Film-based techniques for powder diffraction fell into relative obscurity while diffractometry (parafocusing geometry) with electronic detectors assumed the principle role. The Second Edition, however, followed the First Edition in treating x-ray diffraction first from the standpoint of photographic methods and second from that of diffractometry; this edition changes emphasis to diffractometry as the primary technique. Practical considerations dictate this change: any x-ray diffraction data collection/analysis that the students subsequently encounter will almost surely be diffractometry, and most instructors emphasize these experiments. If the students are to understand their laboratory sessions, which must begin early in the term, diffractometry must be pushed forward in the course. Unfortunately, this requires a progression different from the very satisfactory approach used before: a single crystal diffracting many wavelengths in all directions, a polycrystal sample diffracting one wavelength in many directions, an apparatus sampling a small section of diffraction cones along a particular direction. I predict, however, that the second decade of the new millennium will see the area detector methods regain the prominence once held by photographic methods.

Yet another challenge was integrating reciprocal lattice treatment of diffraction into the text and adding reforming the material on diffraction from nearly perfect crystals. Since the Second Edition appeared, several topics have grown in importance in different segments of the materials community, diffraction from polymers and small angle scattering, and this is reflected in two new chapters. Finally, materials engineers n6ed some familiarity with transmission electron microscopy, and a couple of weeks, building on reciprocal lattice concepts developed earlier, at the end of a semester course on x-ray diffraction and crystal structure may be all that can be spared. To support this possibility, a brief summary of the high points of TEM in materials characterization is provided.

This revision took a long time to be completed, and I am grateful to the various editors who helped it along: Dan Jorananstad, Rob Merino, Laura Curless and especially Michael Slaughter and Scott Disanno, and also their staffs. I am grateful to the various reviewers for their advice: Z.L. Wang, Steve Spooner and Ray Young. I apologize to those who were forced to wait for me to finish this revision, but the revision was done without taking leave from my academic duties and this delay was the result.

Virtually all scholars blend research and teaching to various degrees, and I am no exception. It is difficult to imagine how this revision it might have been completed without the confidence of having a stable base of research funding provided by the U.S. Office of Naval Research; I am, therefore, very grateful to ONR and George Yoder.

I am very grateful to various mentors who laid the foundation on which this revision is based: Neva Gribble, John Hilliard, M. Meshii, Morrie Fine, Howard Birnbaum, Haydn Chen, Keith Bowen, Jerry Cohen, Brett Boston and Jane Deakins, and R. A. Young. I learned much from many others, and I apologize to them for not explicitly recognizing my debt to them. I am also very grateful to the numerous students from the diffraction classes I have taught and to my own research students, undergraduate, Masters and PhD; it would be hard to find a better bunch anywhere. I am grateful to Vinnie Holohan who helped prepare many of the new figures and to Lisa Novak who helped with the more complex equations. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

From the Back Cover

Intended to acquaint the reader with the theory of x-ray diffraction, the experimental methods involved, and the main applications. The book is a collection of principles and methods stressing X-ray diffraction rather than metallurgy. The book is written entirely in terms of the Bragg law and can be read without any knowledge of the reciprocal lattice. It is divided into three main parts—Fundamentals; experimental methods; and applications. Designed for beginners, not as a reference tool for the advanced reader. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley; 2nd edition (June 1978)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201011743
• ISBN-13: 978-0201011746
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #699,094 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars disappointing, July 8, 2001

By 

Dr. Nikolaus Herres (Feldkirch, Austria) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Elements of X-Ray Diffraction (3rd Edition) (Hardcover)

The 2nd Edition of "Elements of X-ray Diffraction" by B.D. Cullity ranks among the best introductory books ever written on the subject. When I bought this 3rd edition I hoped to obtain a book of similar standards. However, exchanging chapter titles (to less meaningful descriptors) and a mere renumbering of chapters and appendices (leaving nearly the complete body of the 2nd edition unchanged) was far from my expectations. I have sincere doubts, if the few brief sections added in this 3rd edition provide much useful information for a newcomer. Somehow, I feel they destroy the integrity of an old well-written text. Above all the publisher obviously did a poor job: The pages with "Chapter references" were completely lost somehow (they amounted to 9 pages in the 2nd edition) and are dearly missed whenever a reader wants to dwell a little bit deeper into the subject and use the citations provided in the text. If you want to go for a good introductory text on X-ray diffraction then choose the 2nd edition. Although based on knowledge of the sixties, and thus slightly old-fashioned, it still makes the point in a consistent and scholarly way. Let's hope the 2nd edition will be available for some time.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Poorly Edited Edition, August 21, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Elements of X-Ray Diffraction (3rd Edition) (Hardcover)

Cullity's expostion of x-ray diffraction is excellent, but the third edition, as noted by other reviewers, is missing all chapter specific references. If you're interested in this title, try to find a copy of the second edition.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars They wasted this book!, March 8, 2008

By 

Random Acts of Mercy (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Elements of X-Ray Diffraction (3rd Edition) (Hardcover)

The second edition of Cullity's text is a classic. It was an extremely useful book for experimentalists who have to use x-ray diffraction to study solid state materials. It did not have a lot of theory, but gave very clear explanations of the concepts and methods needed to apply this powerful characterization technique. After studying at least part of this book you could go to the lab, set up and use a diffractometer or camera, and interpret the results. I thought it would have been great to have an updated edition, incorporating the many advances since that edition from three decades ago - and there have been many.

Unfortunatelly, this was not to be. The third edition has made a hash of the clear exposition which was Cullity's strength. I teach courses in Solid State Physics and Thin Film Physics. When recommending references on XRD to my students, and particularly to graduate students who work with me, I advise them to stay away from the third edition of this book and use instead particular chapters of Cullity's second edition for a clear and concise introduction to the subject.