Validating classical line profile analyses using microbeam diffraction from individual dislocation cell walls and cell interiors

Dislocation structures in deformed metals produce broad asymmetric diffraction line profiles. During analysis, these profiles are generally separated into two nearly symmetric subprofiles corresponding to diffraction by dislocation cell walls and cell interiors. These subprofiles are then interpreted using complex models of dislocation-based line broadening. Until now, it has not been possible to test the many assumptions that are made in such an analysis. Here, depth-resolved microbeam diffraction was used to measure diffraction line profiles from numerous individual dislocation cell walls and cell interiors in a heavily deformed Cu single crystal. Summing these profiles directly constructed the cell-interior and cell-wall subprofiles that have been approximated in the line profile analysis literature for the past 30 years. Direct comparison between the reconstructed subprofiles and the macroscopic asymmetric line profile from the same sample allows the first direct tests of many of the assumptions that have been used for interpreting these X-ray measurements.