APS USAXS/SAXS/WAXS facility

Ultra-Small-Angle X-ray Scattering Facility

Software by Jan Ilavsky

 

Python Software 

pyIrena - ongoing conversion of Irena tools into Python. 

pyIrena is currently in public BETA version (0.4.6 at the time of this edit) and under active development. It is available in pypi for installation on macOS, Windows, or Linux OS. Mode details are on pyIrena page here. 

Matilda - Python data reduction of USAXS data

Matilda is Python version of Indra & Nika packages used by USAXS instrument for data reduction. It has GUI and can be installed on macOS, Windows, or Linux. It can be used using GUI for data reduction of USAXS/SAXS/WAXS data. 

Igor Pro Software

Tools for Igor Pro (www.wavemetrics.com), which currently has version 10.0. 

Which package you need?

  • Small-Angle Scattering data analysis - "Irena" - this is package for analysis of SAS (1D) data. It can also analyze simple reflectivity data and has basic tools to evaluate WAXS (powder diffraction) data. Number of support tools (graphing, data manipulation etc.) is included. Widely used package.
  • Area detector data reduction - "Nika" - this is package for data reduction (2D -> 1D) of SAXS or WAXS (=powder diffraction) data generated using area detectors. This is widely applicable package which is used by SAXS and WAXS community around the world.
  • USAXS data reduction - "Indra" - this is package needed for reduction of USAXS data.  That is for the Bonse-Hart USAXS component of the USAXS/SAXS/WAXS instrument. Unless you used my instrument, you should not need this, even though the same package can be used to reduce data from desktop Boinse-Hart instruments by Rigaku. But this was not tested for long time now.
  • Exponential decay data fitting - "Clementine" - this is package for fitting of any exponential decay data. It uses Maximum entropy method to generate distribution of exponential decay coefficients for  complicated (mixed) or simple exponential decay data.
  • Anomalous X-ray contrast calculation - "Cromer-Liberman" - this is package in Igor code which calculates Cromer-Liberman f', f", etc.  Converted from original Fortran code. 

Required versions

Current version is is release June2025 for Igor 8.04, 9.05+, and 10. June2025 is the last version supporting Igor 8.04. 

Current beta release is January2026Beta, supports only Igor 9.04+ and 10.0.  

Last version compatible with Igor 7.08 is February2020 release and needs to be installed using installer version 1.10: GH_Installer (for Igor 7.08). Download installer and install packages from February2020 release, not higher.

Versions compatible with Igor 6.37 are really obsolete by now and while links are provided on Irena & Nika pages, I strongly discourage users from using them - last updates on those were done around 2015. 

Quick installation tips

Igor Pro - Irena/Nika/Indra

Download Installer : GH_Installer (older: GH_Installer, both for Igor 8.04 and higher)

Irena, Nika, and Indra packages are all installed, updated, or modified, using the same Igor experiment installer. Download GH_Installer Igor experiment and run it in Igor. Install, upgrade, remove packages you need. Use same Igor experiment to upgrade/downgrade packages as needed. If you are installing these packages first time, install XOPs also. Easiest is to watch How to install movie on my Youtube channel. Note, these packages check monthly for updates.  

Python - pyIrena

pip install pyirena[gui]

Python - Matilda

# 1. Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/APS-USAXS/Matilda.git
cd Matilda
# 2. Create the conda environment
conda env create -f environment.yml
conda activate matilda
# 3. Install Matilda with GUI dependencies
pip install -e .[gui]