CRYSTAL PALACE

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The recognition of an unknown crystal orientation is based on the visual comparison of the experimental Laue pattern with the computer plot simulation of this pattern. The simulation includes the intensity of the Laue spots as well as the extinction of spots by interference, which is obtained by the structure factors in the program. The program can be run without any structure factor also, plotting all reflections. This may be used in the orientation of crystal planes which give no by interactive data input until the approximation is nearly perfect.

There are different methods available for the orientation of a crystal in a special crystallographic direction. The rotation angles for the orientation of a crystal in a special crystallographic direction opposite to the incident X-ray or neutron beam can be obtained by different ways. Firstly, the rotation angles can be read off the scales in the plots. Secondly, they can be calculated by a program named CPORIENT in the program package. This program has a similar menu driven interactive data input as the plot program. And thirdly, the calculated rotation angles are given out into a separate file. The Laue spots are designated by the Miller indices in the plots. The Miller indices are the reciprocal sections of the reflecting crystal planes with the three main crystal axes.

CRYSTAL PALACE runs on IBM AT compatible computers from 80286 processor and MS-DOS 3.3 or higher, a version for UNIX-Systems is available also.

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Please send your comments and your suggestions to Yves Epelboin, epelboin@lmcp.jussieu.fr .