Classification of powder diffraction experiments

For a properly aged x-ray tube ageing procedure is described by the manufacturer. 

Overnight experiments normally take from several hours to a whole day or night. It makes sense to run these experiments overnight, since modem powder diffractometers are completely automated. Overnight powder diffraction experiments usually provide good quality diffraction patterns, which are satisfactory for further numerical processing that requires precise peak positions and their intensities. 

Weekend experiments normally take more than a day. They are conducted when precise peak shapes are desired, for example, when microstmctural properties are analyzed based on the anomalies of Bragg peak shapes, or when the crystal stmcture of the material is determined and refined by using the Rietveld method (see Chapter 7). 

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