Multifit / Polydefix - Polycrystal Deformation using X-rays

Introduction

Multifit/Polydefix is a software package originally written to process data obtained in the D-DIA deformation apparatus efficiently. It allows you to decompose 2D diffraction images into azimuthal slices, fit peak positions and intensities, and propagate the results of your fit to other azimuth and images.

There are two components

• Multifit, that can fit diffraction data. It will extract d-spacings, intensities, and half-widths for the peaks you're interrested in, for multiple orientations and multiple diffraction images.
• Polydefix for stress and strain analysis. It will start from the output files created in Multifit and extract microscopic strain information from the diffraction images.

Manuals for installing and running multifit can be found on those tutorials.

Source code - Download

Since June 2011, Multifit/Polydefix has been made open source, licenced under the terms of the GNU General Public License, version 2 (GPL-2.0). I hope that this will generate some interrest in the user community to extend and improve them.

The source code and latest executables are hosted on google code: https://code.google.com/p/multifit-polydefix/.

Developping and extending

Basic developper manual is available at the Multifit/Polydefix google homepage. Both are written in IDL, by ITT Visual Information Solutions. In order to modify the source code, you will need

• an IDL licence,
• to download the latest version of the source code from google (see intructions on the webpage).

Once you're happy with your changes, you can upload your changes and share them with the community. You will need permission to do so. Just contact me, Sébastien Merkel, and I'll grant you the permission.