Journal of Applied Crystallography

Volume 33, Part 3 Number 2 (June 2000)

short communications

J. Appl. Cryst. (2000). 33, 977-979 [ doi:10.1107/S0021889800003617 ]

Estimation of the background in powder diffraction patterns through a robust smoothing procedure

S. Brückner

Abstract: A procedure is described for estimating the background outline in powder diffraction patterns. It essentially consists of an extension of traditional smoothing procedures to include Bragg peaks in addition to profile random fluctuations. This approach is particularly suited for dealing with diffraction patterns obtained from semicrystalline polymer samples; some applications to this kind of experimental data are presented.