Eur. Phys. J. Appl. Phys. 80, 10701 (2017)
https://doi.org/10.1051/epjap/2017160444

Regular Article

Improvements in electron diffraction pattern automatic indexing algorithms^★

¹ Department of Materials Science & Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
² Fredrick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA

^* e-mail: jianzuo@illinois.edu

Received: 1 December 2016
Received in final form: 27 April 2017
Accepted: 7 August 2017
Published online: 6 October 2017

Abstract

Accurate indexing of electron diffraction patterns (DPs) is a critical and enabling step in the nanostructure determination using electron diffraction. Here, we compare two automatic indexing algorithms for spot electron DPs from a known crystalline material, one is based on the normalized cross-correlation of simulated and experimental DPs and the other is based on Groth’s triangle algorithm. The Groth’s triangle algorithm offers better accuracy for indexing off zone axis DPs at the cost of significantly increased computer time. The comparison is made using electron DPs recorded from a nanostructured TiN thin-film sample.