Powder3D, An easy to use program for data reduction and graphical presentation of large numbers of powder diffraction patterns

B. Hinrichsen, R. Dinnebier, M. Jansen

Max-Planck-Institute for Solid State Research, Heisenbergstraße 1, Stuttgart, Germany

One of the major advantages of powder diffraction compared to other analysing techniques is to (indirectly) measure changes of the entire crystal structure as a function of time, pressure, temperature, chemical composition, magnetic field etc.

Once online image plate readers and high resolution CCD cameras became available, they shall force changes in methods of data analysis and presentation. Typical readout times are now on the order of seconds. Soon, milliseconds will become standard, producing huge amounts of data which need to be processed in a reasonable amount of time.

The new software solution presented here aims to provide a tool for just this purpose. At the present time the implemented functionalities include data reduction for Rietveld refinement and powerful graphical representations of 2D and 3D powder diffraction data in presentation quality (see figures 1 to 4, showing the phase transformations and decomposition of Rb₂C₂O₄ which is subject of another abstract). The software design and functionality has been optimised to allow a substantial amount of automation if desired by the user.

Fig. 1	Fig. 2
Fig. 3	Fig. 4