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Whole powder pattern decomposition methods and applications: A retrospection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2012

Armel Le Bail*
Affiliation:
Laboratoire des Oxydes et Fluorures, CNRS UMR 6010, Université du Maine, avenue O. Messiaen, 72085 Le Mans Cedex 9, France
*
a)Electronic mail: alb@cristal.org

Abstract

Methods extracting fast all the peak intensities from a complete powder diffraction pattern are reviewed. The genesis of the modern whole powder pattern decomposition methods (the so-called Pawley and Le Bail methods) is detailed and their importance and domains of application are decoded from the most cited papers citing them. It is concluded that these methods represented a decisive step toward the possibility to solve more easily, if not routinely, a structure solely from a powder sample. The review enlightens the contributions from the Louër’s group during the rising years 1987–1993.

Information

Type
Invited Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2005
Figure 0

Figure 1. Le Bail fit of the powder pattern of LiSbWO6, the first structure solved (Le Bail et al., 1988) from intensities extracted by iterations of the Rietveld decomposition formula.

Figure 1

TABLE I. Most cited papers citing either the Pawley, Le Bail method, or both.

Figure 2

Figure 2. Cumulative histogram of the estimated number of structures determined ab initio by powder diffractometry (from the SDPD-Database).