The Advanced Photon Source
a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science User Facility

Space Groups

Space Groups: A primer on topics significant for powder diffraction

Presentation Goal
  • Introduce symmetry concepts important for Rietveld analysis, particularly of inorganic materials. Knowledge of symmetry operations and space groups, as covered in any crystallography textbook, is assumed.
  • Format: PDF slides or a RealPlayer video of the slides with accompanying audio
Presentation Outline
  1. Space group naming
  2. Nomenclature
  3. Common tripping hazards
    1. Rhombohedral vs. hexagonal settings
    2. Origin 1 vs. Origin 2
    3. Inputting space groups to GSAS
  4. Phase transformations
    1. Terminology & relation to symmetry
    2. Subgroups & Supergroups
    3. Systematic absences
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