Part XII - Communications - Computer Program for Calculating Interplanar Angles and Indexing Back-reflection Laue Data in an Arbitrary Crystal System

WITH experience, the indexing of back-reflection Laue patterns for cubic crystals is usually a straightforward matter. However, for noncubic systems where in general tables of interplanar angles are not available or when inexperienced personnel are involved, properly indexing a crystal is normally a tedious, time-consuming affair. The authors have written a digital-computer program which calculates and prints out a table of interplanar angles for an arbitrary crystal structure and then systematically searches through this table attempting to obtain a consistent fit to back-reflection Laue data supplied by the user. Of course it is possible simply to calculate a desired set of interplanar angles should this be the only requirement. The program was originally written in ALGOL for use on a Control Data G-21 computer and a preliminary version is described elsewhere.' A version in FORTRAN TV which has been run on an IBM 7040 and one in FORTRAN II run on an IBM 1620 are also available. While it is not the purpose of this communication to describe the program in detail, an indication of how the program operates may help one to decide whether the program would be useful under particular circumstances. The hypothetical example chosen involves the indexing of the zinc crystal which has a hexagonal structure and a c/a ratio of 1.856. Input data for this example consists of only nine cards: The first card controls the list of families of planes to be considered. If the Miller indices of a prospective family are (h k 1), the first digit places a limit, in this case 3, on the absolute values of any individual index. The second digit limits the sum (h +k + l + 1), in this case to 5. Therefore the families (013) and (112) are considered but the family (122) is not. All systems, including the hexagonal, are treated using three-digit Miller indices. The second card contains the crystallographic parameters required to define the system. The first digit is 0 if the system is rectangular, that is all angles are 90 deg. If the system is nonrectangular, as in this example, the digit 1 so indicates. The next three values are the lengths of the sides of the reference cell, a, b, c. The final three entries on the card are the angles, a, 8, y between the sides. The digit 0 on the third card indicates that more data follows, the digit 6 shows that a set of six planes is to be indexed, and the value 2.0 indicates that agreement between a tabulated angle and an input angle is considered adequate if their absolute difference is less than 2 deg. The fourth card lists the measured input angles. a12 = 38 deg, a13 = 24 deg, and so forth. More input angles are listed on cards five to eight with the latter giving the input angle 058 = 40 deg. The final card in this series indicates by the digit 1 that no more data is to be processed. The program operates in the following manner: 1) The input data from cards 1 and 2 is read, thereby indicating the crystal system to be examined and the crystallographic parameters of the particular crystal to be indexed. 2) A table of interplanar angles is generated. 3) The input angles contained on cards 4 to 8 are read. 4) The measured input data is systematically compared with the generated table of standard angles. All combinations of poles whose interplanar angles compare with the requisite, specified accuracy are printed out. If no adequate fit is found an indication of this is printed. A typical line from the generated table of interplanar angles is: (001) - (111) 74.92 64.99 It can be shown that in the Miller-Bravais system the first value corresponds to the angles between (0001)-(1121) and the second to that between (0001)-(1011). This particular set of data gave the following result for the planes 1 to 6: (011) (110) (121) (111) (112) (010) The ALGOL version also has the option of simply providing the Greninger-chart coordinates ? and 6