Conventional SAD patterns as obtained in the TEM present difficulties for identification of materials such as asbestiform minerals, although diffraction data is considered to be an important method for making this purpose. The preferred orientation of the fibers and the spotty patterns that are obtained do not readily lend themselves to measurement of the integrated intensity values for each d-spacing, and even the d-spacings may be hard to determine precisely because the true center location for the broken rings requires estimation. We have implemented an automatic method for diffraction pattern measurement to overcome these problems. It automatically locates the center of patterns with high precision, measures the radius of each ring of spots in the pattern, and integrates the density of spots in that ring. The resulting spectrum of intensity vs. radius is then used just as a conventional X-ray diffractometer scan would be, to locate peaks and produce a list of d,I values suitable for search/match comparison to known or expected phases.
