For neutronographic residual stress analysis it is essential to provide correct reference data of the strain free / independent material state, i.e. the lattice parameter d0. As a supplement to laboratory X-ray diffraction approaches using soft X-rays, there exists an increased interest for the non-destructive determination of near surface residual stress gradients for the application of neutron diffraction stress analyses by means of through surface strain scanning. Causal for the residual stress gradients are often processes that induce a chemical gradients of the lattice parameters like e.g. nitriding or case hardening of steel. Moreover, the most technical materials are multi-phase materials. This in total leads for thermal and / or mechanical treatment processes to specific gradients of the phasespecific micro residual stresses. With regards to the preparation of samples to determine the local depth distribution of d0 (typically comb structures, small cubes or pin-like samples) it is mostly unknown if the residual stresses are sufficiently released through the mechanical sectioning for that they can be regarded as being ´stress free´ in the respective measuring directions. Thi