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NOMAD-measurements: a Community plugin

The NOMAD-measurements plugin contains schemas for different measurement methods. An overview of the package structure is shown below.

Technical description

There are some technical aspects to understand the Python package built for this plugin, they are not crucial for the data model understanding itself:

  • It is structured according to the src layout.
  • It is a regular Python package, i. e., the structure is defined by the presence of __init__.py files. Each of these files contains one or multiple entry points. These are used to load a portion of the code within your NOMAD through a specific section in the nomad.yaml file.
  • It is pip installable. The project.toml file defines what will be installed, the dependencies, further details. The entry points included are listed in this file.
nomad-measurements/
├── docs
├── pyproject.toml
├── README.md
├── src
│   └── nomad_measurements
│       ├── general.py
│       ├── __init__.py
│       ├── utils.py
│       └── xrd
│           ├── __init__.py
│           ├── parser.py
│           └── schema.py
└── tests

Data model description

Each method has a dedicated module, i. e., a python file.

General

nomad_measurements.general module contains NOMADMeasurementsCategory which is a category section that can be used to club together the entry sections of nomad_measurements. A key benefit of using category is that all entry sections appear under the one label in the drop-down menu of Create new entry from schema dialog in NOMAD Oasis.

If you want extend one of our entry sections with your specifications, and want to add it under the same category, add this category section in the m_def of the extended section. Here's an example code snippet: 

from nomad.metainfo import Section
from nomad_measurements.general import NOMADMeasurementsCategory
from nomad_measurements.xrd.schema import ELNXRayDiffraction

class MyELNXRayDiffraction(ELNXRayDiffraction):
    m_def = Section(
        categories=[NOMADMeasurementsCategory],
    )
    # ... your specifications
The general module also contains ActivityReference and ProcessReference sections. ActivityReference can be used in your schemas to make references to the Measurement entries. It allows to search an existing entry based on its lab_id, which is an inherited quantity in all Measurement sections, and automatically make a reference to it.

X-Ray Diffraction

nomad_measurements.xrd.schema module provides data models for X-Ray diffraction (XRD). These sections can be used to model the metadata related to the setting and results of the measurement.

In addition to data modeling section, the module contains an ELN (stands for Electronic Lab Notebook) section, which can be used to create an NOMAD entry for XRD measurement and populate the data directly from the files coming from the instrument. The section also provides methods to generate plots for XRD patterns.

In this documentation, we go over some of the important sections of this module. Alternatively, you can access all the section definitions by using the metainfo browser and searching for: "nomad_measurements.xrd"

XRayDiffraction

nomad_measurements.schema.XRayDiffraction section extends Measurement base section and describes the settings and results of XRD measurement. This is achieved by composing XRDSettings and XRDResult sections as sub-sections. 

class XRayDiffraction(Measurement):
    diffraction_method_name: str
    xrd_settings: XRDSettings
    results: list[XRDResult]
Once the section is populated, diffraction pattern is indexed under properties.structural field of entry's results section, making it searchable in NOMAD.

XRDResult

nomad_measurements.schema.XRDResult section describes results coming from XRD measurement. These include intensity, two theta, omega, phi, norm of q-vector, scan axis, and integration time. Their descriptions can be found here in the metainfo browser.

The module also contains extension of this section, specifically XRDResult1D and XRDResultRSM. XRDResult1D provides generate_plots method which uses the results to generate intensity-vs-two-theta and intensity-vs-q-norm plots for line scans.

XRDResultRSM extends the data model to describe reciprocal space maps, or RSM. It redefines shape of intensity to be 2D array and adds two new quantities: q_parallel and q_perpedicular, each being a 2D array. Together, these can be used to describe intensity values in a 2D reciprocal space. The section also provides generate_plots method to generate 2D surface plot for intensity-vs-two-theta-omega and intensity-vs-q-vectors.

XRDSettings

nomad_measurements.schema.XRDSettings section defines the settings related to the X-ray source. It composes XRDTubeSource section which describes tube material, current , voltage, kα1, kα2, kβ, and kα1/kα2

ELNXRayDiffraction

nomad_measurements.schema.ELNXRayDiffraction section allows to use XRayDiffraction as an entry section, which can be used to create NOMAD entries.

The quantity data_file can be used to upload a measurement file coming from the instrument. The section uses readers defined in fairmat-readers-xrd package to extract data from the file and populate the XRayDiffraction schema. Currently, the the reader package supports reading .brml, .xrdml, and .rasx files. Please check the package's documentation for an up-to-date list of the supported file types.

It also inherits the PlotSection, which allows to display Plotly figures of the XRD pattern in the NOMAD Oasis. The plots are generated using the generate_plots methods of XRDResult sections.