Deformation caused by a modulated distribution of solute atoms, periodic in one dimension, in a plate-like crystal is studied within the framework of the isotropic theory of elasticity. The exact formulae for the strain and displacement field, which changes near the surface due to relaxation of the internal concentration stresses, can be used for determination of the distribution of the solute atoms by X-ray diffraction techniques. © 1979 Academia, Publishing House of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences.