Practical XRD with Confidence

Have you learned how to collect a powder XRD pattern but still feel unsure whether you are identifying the right phases or interpreting peak profiles correctly? If that sounds familiar, this session is designed for you.

This session introduces the fundamentals of powder X-ray diffraction, focusing on how diffraction patterns relate to crystal structure and composition. You will learn how sample preparation and measurement choices affect data quality, and how to interpret peak positions and intensities for phase identification. Practical examples are used throughout to highlight common mistakes and show how to avoid them.

You will learn:

• How diffraction peaks form and what they represent
• How sample preparation and scan settings influence results
• How to accurately identify phases using crystallographic databases
• What powder XRD can and cannot reliably tell you

 Have you identified the phases in your sample but still feel unsure how reliable your quantitative results really are? If that uncertainty sounds familiar, this session will help you understand what affects accuracy and how to improve confidence in your results.

This session focuses on practical quantitative phase analysis using powder XRD, with examples drawn from real materials such as battery materials, minerals, metals, cement, and pharmaceutical compounds. You will learn how different quantitative approaches work, when to use them, and how measurement and analysis choices affect accuracy. The discussion covers semi-quantitative and whole-pattern methods, calibration strategies, and common challenges such as peak overlap, preferred orientation, microstructure effects, and amorphous content. 

You will learn:

• When to use RIR versus Rietveld and whole-pattern refinement methods
• How to handle peak overlap, preferred orientation, and microstructure effects
• How calibration reduces matrix effects and instrument drift
• How to produce quantitative results that are reproducible and defensible

Have you applied standard XRD scans to thin films only to find that the results are difficult to interpret or do not answer your real question? If this reflects your experience, this session will help you make better measurement choices.

This session explains how thin film XRD differs from bulk powder diffraction and how to select the right measurement setup for your material and objective. You will learn the physical meaning behind common thin film techniques and how measurement geometry influences what you observe. Examples from polycrystalline and epitaxial films illustrate how to extract meaningful structural information.

You will learn:

• When to use θ–2θ scans, rocking curves, and reciprocal space maps
• How grazing-incidence XRD probes near-surface and ultra-thin films
• How to assess crystalline quality, strain, and lattice parameters
• How to match thin film questions to appropriate XRD techniques

Do your diffraction peaks pile up at low angles or become difficult to interpret in a standard 1D XRD pattern? If you suspect texture or long-period structure is being missed, this session shows how SAXS and WAXS reveal information that conventional scans cannot.

This session introduces small-angle and wide-angle X-ray scattering as complementary techniques to conventional diffraction. You will learn what structural information SAXS and WAXS provide, how experiments are set up, and how to interpret scattering data across different length scales. Practical examples from polymers, nanomaterials, and thin films show when scattering methods are the right tool.

You will learn:

• The difference between SAXS, WAXS, and conventional XRD
• What types of structure appear at different length scales
• When to use one-dimensional versus two-dimensional scattering
• How GI-SAXS and GI-WAXS are applied to thin films and surfaces