Results of the calibrations clearly indicate that the ZBH method gives precision and accuracy comparable to the internal-standard method, and significantly better than the external-standard technique. Several test materials were used in the evaluation which cover a wide range of absorption coefficients so sample transparency effects can be distinguished from sample displacement effects. The three calibration methods are compared using the results of lattice parameter refinements of test powders, using Si as the standard. The effectiveness of the ZBH calibration method is determined by comparison to the conventional internal- and external-standard calibration techniques. An increasingly frequent used sample holder, the zero-background holder (ZBH), is evaluated for use in external standard calibration of powder patterns.
