In our lab, we use a Si pellet provided by the diffractometer manufacturer to routinely verify the zero setting of our Bragg-Brentano diffractometer.

Could this pellet be used to generate the instrument resolution function that characterizes instrument aberrations and peak shape?

I could not find any information of this type of pellet. How is it fabricated? is it sintered powder? Would there be significant differences between the spectrum generated by this commercial pellet and the one generated by NIST 640d reference material (peak shape, peak broadening, preferential orientation)? Are you aware of any studies on the subject?

Best regards,

Simon