X-ray intensity decrease from absorption effects in mechanically milled systems

Mixing strong and weak x-ray absorbers will result in changes in the diffraction intensity, which can be predicted by the preceding model given by Klug and Alexander. The level of mixing, however, is important: with large powder particles the diffraction reveals the composition of the powder with no anomalous decrease in intensity; with small particle powders intermixed by means such as mechanical milling, the diffraction intensity will change in accordance with the materials' linear absorption. The component with the lower x-ray linear absorption coefficient will exhibit much lower diffraction intensities than a rule of mixtures would predict. Good quantitative agreement between experimental intensities for the Si/Sn system and those predicted by the Klug and Alexander model was observed.