Standard Reference Material (SRM 1990) for Single Crystal Diffractometer Alignment

An international project was successfully completed which involved two major undertakings: (1) a round-robin to demonstrate the viability of the selected standard and (2) the certification of the lattice parameters of the SRM 1990, a Standard Reference Material® for single crystal diffractometer alignment. This SRM is a set of ≈3500 units of Cr-doped Al₂O₃, or ruby spheres [(0 420.011 mole fraction % Cr (expanded uncertainty)]. The round-robin consisted of determination of lattice parameters of a pair of crystals' the ruby sphere as a standard, and a zeolite reference to serve as an unknown. Fifty pairs of crystals were dispatched from Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute to volunteers in x-ray laboratories world-wide. A total of 45 sets of data was received from 32 laboratories. The mean unit cell parameters of the ruby spheres was found to be a=4.7608 Å ± 0.0062 Å, and c=12.9979 Å ± 0.020 Å (95 % intervals of the laboratory means). The source of errors of outlier data was identified. The SRM project involved the certification of lattice parameters using four well-aligned single crystal diffractometers at (Bell Laboratories) Lucent Technologies and at NRC of Canada (39 ruby spheres), the quantification of the Cr content using a combined microprobe and SEM/EDS technique, and the evaluation of the mosaicity of the ruby spheres using a double-crystal spectrometry method. A confirmation of the lattice parameters was also conducted using a Guinier-Hägg camera. Systematic corrections of thermal expansion and refraction corrections were applied. These rubies_ are rhombohedral, with space group R3c. The certified mean unit cell parameters are a=4.76080 ± 0.00029 Å, and c=12 99568 Å ± 0.00087 Å (expanded uncertainty). These certified lattice parameters fall well within the results of those obtained from the international round-robin study. The Guinier-Hägg transmission measurements on five samples of powdered rubies (a=4.7610 Å ± 0.0013 Å, and c=12.9954 Å ± 0.0034 Å) agreed well with the values obtained from the single crystal spheres.