Journal of Applied Crystallography

Volume 35, Part 5 (October 2002)

research papers

J. Appl. Cryst. (2002). 35, 546-551 [ doi:10.1107/S0021889802009287 ]

RINGS: a new search/match database for identification by polycrystalline electron diffraction

D. R. Denley and H. V. Hart

Abstract: RINGS is a relational database built from NIST Crystal Data for the identification of polycrystalline solids by selected area electron diffraction (SAED) and elemental analysis using Microsoft Access 97 (subsequently converted to Access 2000). Experimental d spacings are matched against values calculated from reduced unit cells, thereby fully and rigorously incorporating the effects of double diffraction. A total of 79136 inorganic phases are included with original Crystal Data reference codes, allowing access to all the information in NIST Crystal Data. Specific examples illustrate the advantages over previous approaches to the problem. This database will be most useful to researchers in mineralogy, metallurgy, materials science, forensics and analytical chemistry who seek to identify well characterized phases with known unit cells.

Keywords: selected area electron diffraction; elemental analysis; relational database.