Pendellösung fringes of silicon at low temperatures

The crystal structure of silicon has been examined by means of X-ray diffraction according to the Pendellösung method. Measurements of the fringe pattern were made for the 111, 220, 113, 004, 331, 224 and 333 diffractions in a temperature range 17-300 K. It is found that the value of the Debye temperature determined from the temperature dependence of the period of Pendellösung fringes is in good agreement with that in the literature except for the first three diffractions; for these with shorter scattering vectors, the value depends on specimen and, in some cases, is smaller than that in the literature and depends on the length of the scattering vector.- It is also found that the fringe pattern is stress sensitive, and that the stress can be released at lowest temperatures. This phenomenon of a kind of aging is discussed in connection with a similar effect observed in the high-resolution measurement of the lattice spacing.