Python as a tool for analyze X ray Small Angle Scattering data

CRISTIÁN HUCK IRIART; GIOVANETTI, L.J.; FELIX G. REQUEJO

Campinas

Congreso; 25th RAU Annual Users Meeting LNLS/CNPEM.; 2015

LNLS/CNPEM

Small angle x-ray scattering analysis (SAXS) requires a several numerical steps to be done from data reduction to data interpretation (physical models, invariants calculations, etc) in order to extract useful information1. There are few user friendly programs available which allow doing a full data analysis. Nevertheless, some of those software packages are useful to analyze simple systems or to do a small set of predetermined routines. Other programs allow writing new functions or adding in-house written plug-ins. Those types of packages allow a complete and flexible analysis of the experiment but at the expense of learning a specific language. Python is a general purpose, high level programming language. The coding syntax is very easy to learn and is not restricted only to scientific computation. Language features and a small set of core packages includes: NumPy (mathematical arrays), SciPy (linear algebra, differential equations, signal processing and more), SymPy (symbolic math¬ematics), matplotlib (graph plotting), etc; turns Python into a very popular programming choise2. In the presentation we will show some examples of Python coding for SAXS experiments including a full pixel GISAXS image analysis and a few tricks to speed up computer calculations. 1- Glatter, O.; Kratky, O. ?Small Angle X-ray Scattering?, Academy Press, 19822 - Perkel, J.M. Nature, 2015, 518, 125-126