A new and improved sample holder for use with powder X-ray diffractometry has been developed. This holder is made from a semiconductor grade silicon single crystal cut perpendicular to the [911] axis, i.e., Si (911). This crystal meets most of the basic requirements of an ideal zero background plate, with practically no interference lines. The pattern obtained, by using this crystal as background plate, is very clean, and even very low-intensity Bragg reflections of samples can be detected easily.