Time-resolved two-dimensional observation of the change in X-ray diffuse scattering from an alloy single crystal using an imaging plate on a synchrotron-radiation source

Through the high sensitivity of an area-detector Imaging Plate and the high brilliance of synchrotron radiation, changes in two-dimensional intensity distribution of X-ray diffuse scattering from an AgZn single-crystal having the B2-type structure were observed successively during the structural transition from the β′ phase to the ζ phase. It has been shown in a series of patterns taken at a time interval of 600 s that a diffuse intensity sheet extending parallel to the (111) relplane gradually loses its intensity without a precursive modulation while weak diffraction spots from the nuclei of the ζ phase appear superimposed on the sheet with a definite positional relation to the diffraction spots from the β′ phase. Promising aspects as well as the limits of the method applied to time-resolved measurements of structural changes are discussed.