Neutron powder diffraction study of strain and crystallite size in mechanically alloyed PbTe

We report on an analysis of strain and crystallite size effects in mechanically alloyed PbTe. The evolution of the microstructure was monitored by Rietveld refinements of the neutron powder diffraction data collected at room temperature. For milling times shorter than 6 h, the synthesis is not completed and the samples are clearly multi-phase with high concentrations of unreacted starting constituents. For longer milling times, the diffraction patterns are consistent with a single-phase PbTe. Within the range of reaction times studied, the crystallite size decreases with an exponential decay law and saturates to a value of 26 nm. However, the strain parameter does not show such a monotonic behavior. Indeed, it first increases and reaches a maximum when the synthesis is achieved and then drops for longer milling time as a result of the thermal activated annealing induced by additional mechanical shocks. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science (USA). All rights reserved.