Introduction
| The purpose of Stereopole |
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STEREOPOLE is a software package for the analysis of x-ray diffraction pole-figures. It allows to graphically compare the experimental data with simulated results and to evaluate epitaxial relationships between up to five different crystal layers. STEREOPOLE is developed in IDL 6.0 (Interactive Data Language) and can be run by within the freely obtainable IDL runtime environment (IDL Virtual Machine) of EXELIS. |
Features of STEREOPOLE - Main Window
| Menu Description |
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1
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Load session | A whole session of Stereopole (*.stp files) can be restored |
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2
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Load pole figure (*.rwa file) | Pole figures stored in the proprietary Philips PC-Texture file format *.rwa can be directly read in, experimental parameters are then automatically extracted |
|
3
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Save session | A whole session of Stereopole can be saved as binary *.stp file (restored by 'Load Session' (1)) |
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4
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Print window | The content of the actual plot window can be printed to any desired system printer in the same resolution as the current display |
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5
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Save as PostScript | The content of the actual plot window can be saved to a Postscript file for high quality output |
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6
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Zoom | Select this feature to zoom into a rectangular portion of the current plot window |
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7
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2D-mode | Switch to 2D mode if in 3D mode |
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8
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3D-mode | Switch to 3D mode if in 2D mode |
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9
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Change color table | All standard IDL color tables (41 tables) can be selected for the current display and their properties can be altered |
|
10
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Histogram | Displays the histogram of the current pole figure in the main plotwindow |
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11
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Wulff net | Combine the pole figure with a Wulff Net (default in epitaxial mode) |
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12
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Polar net | Combine the pole figure with a Polar Net (default in pole figure mode) |
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13
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Set crystal 1 | Set the parameters of virtual crystals 1-5 (see chap. 'Crystal Declaration') |
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14
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Set crystal 2 | |
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15
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Set crystal 3 | |
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16
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Set crystal 4 | |
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17
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Set crystal 5 | |
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18
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Hkl - list | Display parameters (psi, phi, 2 theta) of all calculated (hkl)-reflections as a list |
|
19
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Toggle mode | Toggle between 'Pole Figure Mode' (pole figures and projected plane normals (hkl) are shown) and 'Epitaxial Mode' (projected directions are plotted) |
|
20
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Select items to show | Toggle which items (pole figure, virtual crystal 1-5) to show |
|
21
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Show index labels | Select whether to display the labels of the projected plane normals (hkl) in 'Pole Figure Mode' and of the projected directions [uvw] in 'Epitaxial Mode' |
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22
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Current position | Displays the current position of the input device in coordinates (psi, phi) |
|
23
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Select items to rotate | Toggle which items to rotate by 'step size' around the axis of rotation (= center of the pole figure by default), the axis can be altered by 'set new axis of rotation' in the menu 'Analysis' |
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24
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Toggle step size | Set step size of rotation (min 1°) |
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25
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Intensity range to show | Set the intensity range for the pole figure |
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26
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File information (*.rwa only) | Shows file information about the current pole figure (*.rwa files only) |
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27
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Set plot preferences | Open 'Preferences' window |
File
| Menu Description |
|
1
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Open *.rwa file | Load a pole figure file stored in the Philips PC-Texture ASCII file format (*.rwa) |
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2
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Load ASCII | Load a pole figure file stored in plain ASCII format. Therefore the use of data sets, equally spaced with respect to phi and psi and listed line-separated, is mandatory. Each line hast to be of the form: <phi> [blank] <psi> [blank] <intensity> [linebreak] under the use of "." as comma |
|
3
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Save ASCII | Save current pole figure data in the format described above |
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4
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Load session | Load a whole previous session of Stereopole |
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5
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Save session | Save the current session, i.e. pole figure data, projections and all current settings |
|
6
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Load crystal 1-5 | Load crystal parameters alpha, beta, gamma, a,b,c (hkl) indices and experimental parameters |
|
7
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Save crystal 1-5 | Save the above parameters for further use |
|
8
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Save image | Export the current content of the plot window to TIFF, JPEG or PostScript |
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9
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Exit | Quit Stereopole |
Edit
| Menu Description |
|
1
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Zoom | Trigger to select two points on the plot window representing the edges of a rectangle to zoom in |
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2
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Preferences | Open the 'Preferences' window |
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3
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Reset | Reset positions of the virtual crystals and all display settings to default |
Analysis
| Menu Description |
|
1
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Set new rotation axis | By default the rotation of the projected plane normals (hkl) is being performed around the center of the pole figure (psi=0). Any position on the display window can be selected as new axis of rotation by this feature. After rotation the orientation (hkl) corresponding with the center of the pole figure is being calculated backwards and displayed in [3] within the window of 'Crystal Declaration' (see below). |
|
2
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Peak integration | Any point of the pole figure can be selected as center of a circular region for peak integration of a diameter that can be altered by [11] in the window 'Preferences' |
|
3
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Show (hkl) list | Display parameters (psi, phi, 2 theta) of all calculated (hkl)-reflections as a list |
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4
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Calculate interplanar angles (crystal 1-5) | The angles between arbitrary planes within a certain virtual crystal can be calculated by clicking on the two projected plane normals (hkl) |
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5
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(hkl) by click | Calculate the corresponding plane normal (hkl) of a certain position on the display for a selected virtual crystal |
Crystal Declaration
| Menu Description |
|
1
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Netplanes to show (manual input) | Plane normals (hkl) can be manually inserted and are displayed if manual index construction mode [5] is selected. A certain (hkl) can be displayed n-fold at constant angle psi and at angles phi=360°/n, higher harmonics can be considered if inserted under 'harmony'. |
|
2
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Unit cell parameters | The parameters a, b, c, alpha, beta, gamma of the desired virtual crystal |
|
3
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Orientation setup | The orientation of the virtual crystal, i.e. the plane normal (hkl) corresponding to the center of the pole figure. It is being calculated on opening the window [Keep Orientation] and can be altered manually [Set new Orientation]. |
|
4
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Index range (automatic input) | The lower and upper limit of automatically generated indices |
|
5
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Index construction mode | Indices (hkl) can be manually set [1], automatically generated between the limits [4] or the two construction modes can be combined |
|
6
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Experimental parameters |
X-ray wavelength and 2 Theta angle at which the pole figure was recorded
are being extracted off the header of a PC-Texture file of have to be
set manually if using arbitrary ASCII files for pole figure data. |
|
7
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Higher harmonic calculation | The level of higher harmonics that should be taken into account in automatic index generation mode |
|
8
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File info | Information about the loaded pole figure |
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9
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Calculate crystal | Exit the window and do the calculations |
Plot Preferences
| Menu Description |
|
1
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Pole figure histogram | The intensity histogram of the current pole figure |
|
2
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Number of contour levels to show | The number of contour levels that are being used to display the current pole figure |
|
3
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Polar Net steps | The angular distance between two circles of the polar net that is being plotted above the pole figure |
|
4
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(hkl) label size | Font size of the (hkl) and [uvw] labels |
|
5
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label offset | Offset of the (hkl) label |
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6
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Symbol type | Choose: square, plus, asterisk, period, diamond, triangle or cross |
|
7
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Size of symbol | The size of the above symbol |
|
8
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n-th line to label (contour lines) | If displaying 'Contour Lines' [14] it is possible to label the intensity each n-th line represents |
|
9
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3D resolution | Number of pixels in x and y direction in 3D mode |
|
10
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Range around psi=90° in epitaxial mode | In 'Epitaxial Mode' projected directions [uvw] of the virtual crystals are only plotted if within this range |
|
11
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Diameter of peak integration | The diameter of the circular range for peak integration |
|
12
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quality of inverse (hkl) calculation | The accuracy with which (hkl) is being recalculated from a given position in the display window (see: 'Analysis' -> '(hkl) by click' [5]) |
|
13
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Crystal colors 1-5 | Set the RGB values for the five different virtual crystals |
|
14
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Contour line toggle | Toggle whether to display contour lines in the contour plot of the pole figure (2D mode) |
|
15
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Division by GCD | Toggle whether calculated (hkl) should be divided by their greatest common devisor like (422) -> (211), which represent the same net planes of the crystal but with the half interplanar distance. With this feature it can be avoided that labels are being plotted over each other, like (111) by (222) ... if the filtering capabilities are disabled. |
Download
| How to obtain and use Stereopole |
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IDL 6.0
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is available on the following platforms with minimum requirements in brackets: Intel x86 (RedHat 7.1, Windows NT 4.0), Macintosh (OS X 10.3), SUN SPARC (Solaris 8), IBM RS/6000 (AIX 5.1), HP PA-RISC (HP-UX 11.0), SGI Mips (IRIX 6.5.1) and Compaq Alpha (Tru64 UNIX 5.1), its runtime environment IDL Virtual Machine can be downloaded free of charge from EXELIS |
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Stereopole
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is published under the General Public License GPL. By downloading Stereopole you agree to these terms of license. Stereopole can be used free of charge, if used for academic publications a reference to the authors is mandatory. |
[c] 2004 by Ingo Salzmann