METHOD FOR COLLECTING ACCURATE X-RAY DIFFRACTION DATA WITH A SCANNING TWO-DIMENSIONAL DETECTOR

An X-ray diffraction system uses a two-dimensional detector to detect diffracted X-ray energy at a plurality of radial positions surrounding a sample location, the results at each position being combined to form a final diffraction image. To minimize smearing in the final image, the detector pixel intensities at each position are reapportioned among the pixel locations prior to being combined with the intensities collected at other positions. A two-dimensional pixel array space of the detector is projected onto a cylinder to form a projected pixel array space, and a virtual cylindrical detection surface representative of an ideal cylindrical detector is determined. An overlap between the pixels of the projected pixel array space and the pixels of the virtual cylindrical detection surface is determined, and pixel intensities are reapportioned accordingly. The reapportionment may include dividing each pixel space into subpixels and redistributing the subpixels among adjacent pixels.