Peak shape variation in fixed-wavelength neutron powder diffraction and its effect on structural parameters obtained by Rietveld analysis

Analyses of high-resolution neutron powder diffraction data, using both the Pearson VII and pseudo-Voigt peak shape functions, have revealed a range of peak shapes from essentially Gaussian to Lorentzian and beyond. Moreover, the refinements show that the Lorentzian character of the peaks in each pattern increases with increasing diffraction angle. Both kinds of shape change are associated with varying relative contributions to the peak profiles of the instrumental resolution, isotropic crystallite strain and crystallite size effects. Rietveld analysis of powder data with the standard Gaussian form when the peaks have significant Lorentzian character has little effect on atomic positional parameters, but it leads to an overestimation of the thermal vibration coefficients and higher least-squares residuals.