The Orange workflow adapts quite naturally to a synchrotron radiation beamline optics simulation where sources and optical elements are represented by widgets and wires carry the photon beam. Thanks to its Python API, the ray tracing code Shadow3 has been totally integrated into the Orange engine, as a first prototype of a wider suite, that will contain several simulation tools that communicate among them.

The Orange environment allows the user to develop customized widgets. We present here the calculation of the Instrumental Profile Function (IPF) of a X-ray Powder Diffraction beamline. The accurate knowledge of the IPF is essential for study of nanomaterials. Thanks to the OASYS environment, it was possible to develop solutions and tools to enhance the capability of handling the IPF along the life-cycle of a powder diffraction experiment. This work illustrated a particular case of combining ray-tracing simulations with sample modelling both integrated into a Python-based modern visual environment, a solution that will be of interest to many different beamlines in other applications, like X-ray spectroscopy and imaging.

Contact : ferrero@esrf.fr