xRHEED

📡 A versatile Python toolkit for RHEED image analysis

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🔬 What is RHEED?

Reflection High-Energy Electron Diffraction (RHEED) is an experimental technique used to monitor and control the quality of crystal surfaces.
A high-energy electron beam (∼20 keV) strikes the surface at a grazing angle (< 5°), making the method highly surface-sensitive and probing only a few atomic layers.

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🎯 Project Goals

xRHEED provides a flexible and extensible Python toolkit for RHEED image analysis:

• 🖼️ Load and preprocess RHEED images
• 📈 Generate and analyze intensity profiles
• ✨ Overlay predicted diffraction spot positions (kinematic theory & Ewald construction)
• 🔄 Transform RHEED images into kx–ky space
• 🔍 Search for reconstruction lattice constants and rotations by calculating the matching coefficient between predicted and experimental data

👉 Note: xRHEED is not a GUI application. It is designed as an xarray accessory library, intended for use in interactive environments such as Jupyter notebooks.

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Installation

Using PyPI

pip install xrheed

Using pip (editable install for development)

git clone https://github.com/mkopciuszynski/xrheed
cd xrheed
pip install -e .

Using uv (with virtual environment)

1. Install uv.
2. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/mkopciuszynski/xrheed
cd xrheed

3. Create and activate a virtual environment.
4. Sync dependencies:

uv sync

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🚀 Quick Usage

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import xrheed

# Load a RHEED image
rheed_image = xrheed.load_data("rheed_image.raw", plugin="dsnp_arpes_raw")

# Show image with auto-adjusted levels
rheed_image.ri.plot_image(auto_levels=2.0)
plt.show()

# Get intensity profile and plot its origin
profile = rheed_image.ri.get_profile(center=(0, -5), width=40, height=4,
                                     show_origin=True)

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📖 Citation

If you use xRHEED in your research, please cite it:

Kopciuszynski, M. ORCID (2025). xRHEED: A versatile Python toolkit for RHEED image analysis.
GitHub. https://github.com/mkopciuszynski/xrheed
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17099751

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📚 👉 See the full documentation for tutorials and advanced examples.