EARLY FINDING OF PREFERRED ORIENTATION - A NEW METHOD

Pattern decomposition programs are able to derive, from the measured powder diffraction patterns, estimates of the square moduli of the structure factors. A method is described that, by statistical analysis of the normalized structure-factor moduli, is able to obtain information about the possible presence of preferred orientation. Cylindrical symmetry of the specimen is necessary. The method proves to be efficient and quite useful for the application of direct methods to powder data.