Diffraction training

March 16 to 20, 2026

The 34th continuing education course on X-ray, neutron and electron diffraction of polycrystalline materials will be held in Nantes. This is a clear sign of the scientific community’s interest in techniques that enable not only structural refinements, but also the study of crystallite sizes, micro-deformations and proportions of phase mixtures in multiphase systems. This latter aspect allows non-destructive, quantitative phase analysis of high precision, making it industrially very attractive, even when on-line measurements are envisaged. Samples consisting of mixtures of amorphous and crystallized phases of known structure can also be analyzed (e.g. glass crystals). Such results are made possible by the precision of today’s laboratory diffractometers, and by the use of processing programs whose performance is constantly evolving.

Our laboratory, heavily involved in the crystallography of polycrystalline phases, offers a five-day training course including specific workshops. Lecturers from several laboratories are associated with our training program, so that you can benefit from the best skills in the fields covered.

On the other hand, we will continue to offer our three-day refresher course, introduced in September 2007 and aimed at people with a solid grounding in powder diffraction, and particularly at former participants. For practical organizational reasons, this course will no longer take place in the week following the initial five-day course in March, but in October. A specific letter will be sent out.

• 2026 program download
• Download registration form

October 2026 – dates not yet known

For 34 years now, we’ve been running a course in Nantes on X-ray, neutron and electron diffraction of polycrystalline materials. At the request of former participants, including yourself, we have now set up a three-day course on ab initio structural determination and Pair Distribution Function (PDF) analysis. These two subjects, which deal with issues that are distinct but nevertheless complementary to Level 1 training, can be chosen à la carte by participants. Tuesday is devoted to ab-initio structural determination, followed by two days (Wednesday and Thursday) dedicated to PDF analysis.

These three-day courses are aimed exclusively at people who already have a sound knowledge of powder diffraction (Level 1 training required).

The ab-initio structural determination day will review the various approaches (direct methods, parallel annealing and charge flipping) used to obtain a structural model prior to any refinement. It will also provide an opportunity to discover the powerful interfacing capabilities of the JANA 2020 refinement program to the various approaches.

PDF analysis, based on the study of total scattering and therefore applicable to the study of crystallized materials as well as amorphous or vitrocrystalline materials, will be the subject of the next two days. While the PDF technique has long been the almost exclusive domain of large instruments (synchrotron or neutron), the number of studies has steadily increased, and this growth should accelerate with the possibility of carrying out many of these analyses on simple laboratory diffractometers. PDF data will be prepared using PDFGetX2 or PDFGetX3, while refinements will be carried out using PDFGUI or MolPDF.

For all the topics covered, a large part of the program will be devoted, as usual, to hands-on sessions.

• Programme 2025 (for information) download
• Registration form (coming soon)