User guide: indexing reflections¶

New in version 1.3.0.

The topic of indexing reflections is a large one. The indexing functionality of crystals is intended to be general enough to be useable with x-ray, electron, and neutron diffraction data. As such, all indexing routines presented here expect that you have a list of peaks, already oriented in reciprocal space. This way, the details of the scattering experiments are not important to crystals.

General purpose direct indexing with DirAx¶

The first and simplest indexing routine, index_dirax(), is based on the DirAx algorithm presented in:

A. J. M. Duisenberg, Indexing in Single-Crystal Diffractometry with an Obstinate List of Reflections (1992), J. Appl. Cryst vol. 25 pp. 92 - 96.

For this example, we will need a list of reflections oriented in reciprocal space. Let’s start with a very simple example using the simplest crystal structure, cubic polonium:

>>> from crystals import Crystal
>>> import numpy as np
>>>
>>> indices = [ (0,0,0), (1,0,0), (0,1,0), (0,0,1) ]
>>>
>>> cryst = Crystal.from_database('Pu-epsilon') # cubic polonium
>>> peaks = [cryst.scattering_vector(hkl) for hkl in indices]


The list of peaks are peak positions in three-dimensional reciprocal space. To index:

>>> from crystals import index_dirax
>>> lattice, hkls = index_dirax(peaks)
>>> lattice
< Lattice object with parameters 3.638Å, 3.638Å, 3.638Å, 90.00°, 90.00°, 90.00° >
>>> hkls.astype(int)
array([[0, 0, 0],
[1, 0, 0],
[0, 1, 0],
[0, 0, 1]])


Here, hkls are the indices of the reflections in peaks according to the indexing lattice, lattice. As expected, the Miller indices in hkls match the ones we created in indices.

Indexing a cubic lattice with perfect peak placement is pretty easy: we only needed four reflections. The DirAx algorithm is robust against missing reflections, but also alien reflections that do not belong there. In the next example, we will introduce 10% of non-fitting reflections:

>>> from crystals import Crystal, index_dirax
>>> import numpy as np
>>>
>>> cryst = Crystal.from_database('Pu-epsilon') # cubic polonium
>>> indices = list(cryst.bounded_reflections(3))
>>> num_aliens = len(indices) // 10 # 10% alien reflections
>>> aliens  = [ np.random.random(size=(3,)) for _ in range(num_aliens) ]
>>>
>>> peaks = [cryst.scattering_vector(hkl) for hkl in indices + aliens]
>>> lattice, hkls = index_dirax(peaks)
>>> lattice
< Lattice object with parameters 3.638Å, 3.638Å, 3.638Å, 90.00°, 90.00°, 90.00° >
>>> hkls.round(decimals=3)
array([[-1.   , -1.   , -1.   ],
[-1.   , -1.   ,  0.   ],
[-1.   , -1.   ,  1.   ],
[-1.   ,  0.   , -1.   ],
[-1.   ,  0.   ,  0.   ],
[-1.   , -0.   ,  1.   ],
[-1.   ,  1.   , -1.   ],
[-1.   ,  1.   ,  0.   ],
[-1.   ,  1.   ,  1.   ],
[ 0.   , -1.   , -1.   ],
[ 0.   , -1.   ,  0.   ],
[ 0.   , -1.   ,  1.   ],
[ 0.   ,  0.   , -1.   ],
[ 0.   ,  0.   ,  0.   ],
[-0.   , -0.   ,  1.   ],
[-0.   ,  1.   , -1.   ],
[-0.   ,  1.   ,  0.   ],
[-0.   ,  1.   ,  1.   ],
[ 1.   , -1.   , -1.   ],
[ 1.   , -1.   ,  0.   ],
[ 1.   , -1.   ,  1.   ],
[ 1.   ,  0.   , -1.   ],
[ 1.   ,  0.   ,  0.   ],
[ 1.   , -0.   ,  1.   ],
[ 1.   ,  1.   , -1.   ],
[ 1.   ,  1.   ,  0.   ],
[ 1.   ,  1.   ,  1.   ],
[ 0.549,  0.715,  0.603],
[ 0.545,  0.424,  0.646]])


As you can see, the last indexed reflections in hkls don’t have integer Miller indices; those are the non-fitting (alien) reflections!

Of course, the DirAx algorithm is also resistant to noise. Here is an example where we add noise to our perfect peaks:

>>> from crystals import Crystal, Lattice, index_dirax
>>> import numpy as np
>>>
>>> cryst = Crystal.from_database("Pu-epsilon")
>>> indices = list(cryst.bounded_reflections(2))
>>>
>>> peaks = [
...     cryst.scattering_vector(hkl) + np.random.normal(0, scale=0.01, size=(3,))
...     for hkl in indices
... ]
>>> lattice, hkls = index_dirax(peaks)
>>> hkls.round(decimals=2)
array([[-0.98, -0.  , -0.  ],
[ 0.  , -1.  ,  0.01],
[ 0.  , -0.  , -1.  ],
[ 0.  ,  0.01, -0.  ],
[ 0.  , -0.  ,  0.99],
[ 0.  ,  1.01, -0.  ],
[ 1.  , -0.01,  0.  ]])


Dealing with a restricted set of reflections¶

index_dirax() can also deal with a restricted set of reflections. For example, in electron diffraction measurements, it might occur that the only reflections measured are of the form $$\{ (hk0) \}$$. This happens, for example, when measuring diffraction from layered compounds like graphite.

Let’s try to index without prior knowledge first:

>>> from crystals import Crystal, index_dirax
>>> import numpy as np
>>> from itertools import product
>>>
>>> cryst = Crystal.from_database('C') # graphite
>>> indices = product(
...     [-2,-1,0,1,2], #-3 < h < 3
...     [-2,-1,0,1,2], #-3 < k < 3
...     [0]            #     l = 0
... )
>>> peaks = [cryst.scattering_vector(hkl) for hkl in indices]
>>> lattice, hkls = index_dirax(peaks)
Traceback (most recent call last):
crystals.indexing.common.IndexingError: No candidate lattice vectors could be determined.


As you can see, there not enough information to index. Let’s now use an initial guess:

>>> lattice, hkls = index_dirax(peaks, initial=cryst) # Lattice or Crystal works here
>>> lattice
< Lattice object with parameters 2.464Å, 2.464Å, 6.711Å, 90.00°, 90.00°, 120.00° >


Great!

Other indexing methods¶

More specialized and performant indexing methods are planned to be included in crystals. If there’s a particular method you would like to see included, please do not hesitate to raise an issue!