I did XRD of both yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ) and alumina (Al2O3) thin films both of which were found to be amorphous using TEM. The XRD also indicated amorphous nature. However, in YSZ, I found a hump whereas, in Al2O3, I didn't see any hump.
Why is it so?
It's most likely that the scattering from the alumina was much weaker than that from the YSZ. The YSZ film was 3 times as thick as the alumina. In addition, Zr is a much stronger scatterer than Al.
If you do not see any hump it simply means that either (1) its intensity is too small to detect compared to to the background scattering or (2) your substance has no short range correlations at all. The former is more possible because it is diffcult to imagine that for Al2O3 there is no short range correlations.
Thank you Dr. Tapan for the answer.
Both, YSZ and Al2O3, were prepared under same condition as well as scanned under same parameters using XRD. Then how could it be different for Al2O3 as compared to YSZ according to your explanation (1).
Actually, there is not enough data to answer your question. What method of XRD did you use? How thick are your films? What is the substrate?
Grazing incidence was used.
Thickness: 600 nm (YSZ) and 200 nm (Al2O3)
Substrate: Si (100)
It's most likely that the scattering from the alumina was much weaker than that from the YSZ. The YSZ film was 3 times as thick as the alumina. In addition, Zr is a much stronger scatterer than Al.
With grazing beam you can change the X-ray incidence angle in such a way that you will not have the influence of the substrate on your measurement data. If you've done so, than, in my opinion, you should've seen amorphous broad peak from your films anyway even with the difference in scattering ability. The only question is at what angle interval the peaks should have appeared.
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