CRYSTAL INDEXING METHOD USING A SIMULATED ANNEALING ALGORITHM WITH PARTICULAR APPLICATIONS IN NANOCRYSTAL RESEARCH

The development of a crystal indexing computer program using interplan ar angles and lattice spacings is very useful, particularly in nanocry stal research by transmission electron microscopy. However, the indexi ng involves a large number of possible variables, which prohibits the use of simple mathematical techniques. This article is concerned with an application of a combinatorial optimization technique using the sim ulated annealing algorithm for solving the crystal indexing problem wh ere traditional descent optimization cannot be used. We show that the program can unambiguously identify the Miller indices using a set of i nterplanar angles even for crystals with low symmetry elements. (C) 19 97 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.