A measurement set consists of

• A column data file with columns of energy and scalars from the measurement.
• One Pilatus image for each energy point in the XANES scan containing the HERFD signal at that point.
• A set of Pilatus images taken at energies around the fluorescence energy. These are used to make a mask which identifies which pixels contain signal related to specific emission energies.

This software uses perl, Moose, and PDL to process the images into a high resolution XANES spectrum. The GUI, called Metis, uses WxWidgets and its perl bindings. See Xray::BLA::Image for how to import the signed 32 bit tiff images directly into PDL.

To install, do the following:

     perl Build.PL
     sudo ./Build installdeps  ## (if any dependencies are not met)
     ./Build
     ./Build test
     sudo ./Build install

The requirement Graphics::Gnuplot::Palettes is not on CPAN and will not be installed at the Build installdeps step. Download this package from https://github.com/bruceravel/Graphics-Gnuplot-Palettes

bla, found in the bin/ folder, is a wrapper script around the various bent Laue tasks:

1. herfd: make a single HERFD spectrum at a specific emission energy
2. rixs: generate a sequence of HERFD spectra at a sequence of emission energies
3. xes: compute the emission spectrum for a specific incident energy
4. plane: compute the resonant XES plane
5. map: convert a series of elastic images to an energy vs. pixel map
6. mask: compute the mask file for a specific emission energy
7. point: convert a specified BLA image to its HERFD value for a specified emission energy

 bla herfd [cxespvnfqh]  <stub>
 bla rixs  [cxspvnfqh]   <stub>
 bla xes   [cipvnqh]     <stub>
 bla plane [cpvnqh]      <stub>
 bla map   [crpvnqh]     <stub>
 bla mask  [csvnfqh]     <stub>
 bla point [ceih]        <stub>

    --config   | -c    [string]  configuration file (required)
    --energy   | -e    [integer] emission energy (required for herfd/point tasks)
    --incident | -i    [integer] data point at which compute HERFD (required for point/xes task)
    --xdiini   | -x    [string]  XDI configuration file
    --reuse    | -r    [flag]    reuse mask files for energy map if in outfolder
    --save     | -s    [flag]    save mask as gif
    --plot     | -p    [flag]    plot data (herfd/rixs/map/xes tasks)
    --verbose  | -v    [flag]    write progress messages
    --nocolor  | -n    [flag]    turn off color coding of screen output
    --format   | -f    [string]  output static image format, gif or tif
    --quiet    | -q    [flag]    suppress progress messages
    --help     | -h    [flag]    write this message and exit

The bla script assumes that scan files and image files have related names. In this example, the scan file is called Aufoil1.001 and the image files are called Aufoil1_NNNNN.tif. The NNNNN in the image file name indicates the data point and is reflected in one of the columns of the scan file. If your data do not follow these patterns, this script will fail. File locations are specified in the configuration file.

 examples:  bla herfd -c=/path/to/config.ini -e=9713 Aufoil1
            bla rixs  -c=/path/to/config.ini Aufoil1
            bla map   -c=/path/to/config.ini Aufoil1
            bla xes   -c=/path/to/config.ini -i=11970 Aufoil1
            bla plane -c=/path/to/config.ini Aufoil1
            bla mask  -c=/path/to/config.ini -e=9713 Aufoil1
            bla point -c=/path/to/config.ini -e=9713 -p=10 Aufoil1

Here, “Aufoil1” is the stub, i.e. the basename of the scan and image files, and the -c and -e command line options are demonstrated.

The -i flag, used by point and xes can take either an integer, indicating the index of the data point, or a number, indicating the incident energy of the datapoint. So the following may be equivalent:

     bla point -c=/path/to/config.ini -e=9713 -i=69 Aufoil1
     bla point -c=/path/to/config.ini -e=9713 -i=12000 Aufoil1

For the point task, the -i flag must be specified. For the xes task, if the -i flag is omited, the midpoint of the scan (in index, not in energy) will be used.

Options that are not used by a function (for example -e for rixs or map, or -i for any task other than point or xes) will be silently ignored.

-c is required for all functions unless the BLACONFIG environment variable is set.

The -r flag is a time-saver for the rixs, map, and xes tasks. When present, this flag tells the program to reuse any mask images or scan files found in the output folder. This is safe so long as the mask creation parameters in the configuration file have not been changed.

Since the point task returns a number intended for use during data acquisition, verbosity is turned off regardless of the command line switches. Use the -q flag if you want to suppress screen messages during the mask task. Saving is turned on for the mask task regardless of the command line switches.

-p will cause a plot to be made using Gnuplot before exiting for the herfd, xes, and map tasks. The program and plot will exit when you hit return. For the rixs task, the most recent HERFD spectrum will be plotted before immediately going on to the next emmission eenrgy. The HERFD plots are quite crude, without axis labels or other ornaments.

Use of the -c flag can be avoided by setting the BLACONFIG environment variable. The following are equivalent:

  bla herfd -c=/path/to/config.ini -e=9713 Aufoil1

  export BLACONFIG=/path/to/config.ini
  bla herfd -e=9713 Aufoil1

Use of the -e flag can be avoided by setting the BLAENERGY environment variable. The following are equivalent:

  bla herfd -c=/path/to/config.ini -e=9713 Aufoil1

  export BLAENERGY=9713
  bla herfd -c=/path/to/config.ini Aufoil1

You can also avoid using the -e flag by setting a single energy in the emission line of the configuration file. (Of course, having only a single energy in that list will hamper the rixs, map, and xes tasks….)

Use of the -x flag can be avoided by setting the BLAXDIINI environment variable. The following are equivalent:

  bla herfd -c=/path/to/config.ini -x /path/to/xdi.ini -e=9713 Aufoil1

  export BLAXDIINI=/path/to/xdi.ini
  bla herfd -c=/path/to/config.ini -e 9713 Aufoil1

Each environment variable is overridden by its respective command line switch.

• The output of the herfd task is a data file containing the HERFD spectrum at the specified emission energy and, if requested, gif images with the mask.

  At each energy point, the HERFD signal is computed from the Pilatus image using the mask created as described above. The counts on each pixel lying within the illuminated portion of the mask are summed. This sum is the HERFD signal at that incident energy.

  A column data file is written containing the energy and several scalars from the original measurement and a column containing the HERFD signal. This file can be imported directly into Athena.

• The output of the rixs task is the same as for the herfd script at each emission energy.
• The output of the xes task is a data file containing the XES spectrum from that incident energy with the signal from each emission energy weighted by the number of illuminated pixels in that mask.
• The output of the map task is a data file in a simple format which can be read by gnuplot and a gnuplot script for displaying the data. The resulting image will plot a map of detector column vs detector row with the color axis showing energy. Gif files for the masks at each emission energy are also written.
• The output of the mask task is a single gif file containing the mask for the specified emission energy.
• The output of the point task is the HERFD value extracted from a specified BLA image for a specified emission energy. The value is printed to STDOUT. If files containing the BLA image or the emission mask do not exist or if any other problem is encountered, 0 is printed to STDOUT.

On Windows, tiff files are written rather than gif files.

The herfd, rixs, xes, and map tasks are intended for post-processing of a full data set.

The mask and point tasks are intended for inlining in the data acquisition process. The mask task should be run after measuring the elastic images at the emission energy and before measuring the HERFD data. The mask task takes about 10 seconds.

The point task is intended for generating the HERFD value at a specific emission energy during the scan. This value can be used for plotting or storing to the output data file. The point task takes less than 1 second.

The configuration file is in the Windows-style ini format. Here is an example:

[measure]
emission   = 9703 9705 9707 9709 9711 9713 9715 9717 9719
scanfolder = /home/bruce/Data/NIST/10ID/2011.12/scans
tiffolder  = /home/bruce/Data/NIST/10ID/2011.12/tiffs
outfolder  = /home/bruce/Data/NIST/10ID/2011.12/processed
element    = Au
line       = La1
 
[files]
scan       = %s.001
elastic    = %s_elastic_%e_%t.tif
image      = %s_%c.tif

[steps]
steps = <<END
bad 400 weak 0
multiply by 5
areal mean radius 2
bad 400 weak 2
lonely 3
social 2
END

Here is an example configuration file. (It is important not to cut-and-paste the example above in a way that preserves the org-mode mark-up.)

The emission can use a more concise syntax if the sequence of elastic energies was measured on a uniform grid. The following are equivalent:

emission   = 9703 9705 9707 9709 9711 9713 9715 9717 9719

emission   = 9703 to 9719 by 2

White space does not matter, but the words to and by are required.

If the emission line has only a single energy, then you can omit the -e flag when using the herfd, mask, or point tasks.

This configuration file can sit anywhere on disk and must be specified at the command line or via the BLACONFIG environment variable when using the bla script. I would recommend that you put it in the current work directory wherever you are working on your data. You may wish to keep multiple configuration files around for different experiments, different edges, different samples, etc.

In the [measure] section, the emission item, which is not used by the herfd function, contains the list of emission energies at which to generate HERFD spectra. The next three items are the locations of the scan files, the image files, and the output files. The last two items are used to properly scale the color palette of the energy map by positively identifying the emission line measured.

The [files] section defines several mini-templates for specifying file names. In this example, the elastic images are stored on disk with names like Aufoil1_elastic_9711_00001.tif. The “elastic” template is %s_elastic_%e_%t.tif. The %s is replaced by the stub, %e and %t are replaced by the elastic energy and the tiff counter (used to construct file names on the camera). The tags used in the template system are:

%s : stub
%e : emission energy
%i : incident energy
%t : tiffcounter
%c : energy index counter
%% : literal %

The [steps] section is used to define the sequence of operations used to make the mask at any emission energy. The syntax of this section is somewhat fussy. It is essential that there are no spaces after either instance of the word END. Other than that, white space is not important, but spelling is.

The possible steps to mask creation are:

1. Bad and weak pixel removal. The syntax is bad # weak #. The first number indicates the value above which a pixel is assumed to be a bad pixel. The second number is the value below which a pixel is considered weak. Both bad and weak pixels are removed from the mask.
2. Multiply emission image by an overall constant. The syntax is multiply by # where the number is the constant scaling factor.
3. Apply an areal median or mean to each pixel. The syntax is areal (median|mean) radius #. The number defines the size of the square considered around each pixel. A value of 1 means a 3x3 square, a value of 2 means a 5x5 square. The value of each pixel is set to either the mean or the median value of the pixels in the square.
4. Remove all the lonely pixels. A lonely pixel is one which is illuminated but is not surrounded by enough illuminated pixels. The syntax is lonely #. The number defines how many illuminated pixels are required for a pixel not to be considered lonely.
5. Include all social pixels. A social pixel is one which is not illuminated but is surrounded by enough illuminated pixels. The syntax is social #. The number defines how many of the surrounding pixels must be illuminated for the pixel to be turned on.
6. Use the energy map computed by the map task. The syntax is map # where the number is the width in eV about the emission energy. Any pixels with a value of <emission> +/- <width> will be included in the mask. Note that it makes no sense to use this step with any step other than the bad/weak step, which should precede this step.
7. Use the entire image. The syntax is entire image. This step just sets all the pixels in the mask to 1 so that the entire image is used to compute the energy point. Note that it makes no sense to use this step with any step other than the bad/weak step, which should precede this step.

The steps can come in any order and can be repeated. At the end of the final step, the illuminated pixels in the mask will be set to a value of 1 so that the final mask can be used as an AND mask to create the HERFD spectra.

Care is taken at the end to remove bad pixels that might have been restored by the areal or social pixel steps.

The library is not particularly robust in terms of flagging problems. You should not expect particularly useful error messages if the folders in the configuration file are not correct or if you give an emission energy value that was not measured as an elastic image. In those cases, the program will almost certainly fail with some kind of stack trace, but probably not with an immediately useful error message. To say this another way, it’s up to you to do file management sensibly.

In order to save mask images, you may need to install some additional software on your computer. PDL uses the NetPBM package for image format manipulation. On Ubuntu, the package is called netpbm and is likely already installed. This is not installed by the Demeter installer for Windows, so you have to install it separately. Download and install the NetPBM Windows installer.

Note where the binaries get installed. You must add that location to the execution path. This can be done at the Windows command prompt by

 set PATH=%PATH%;C:\GnuWin32\bin

substituting C:\GnuWin32\bin with the location on your computer.

Without NetPBM, an invocation of the bla script with the -s flags will not run to completion.

Using ImageMagick on the output masks:

convert -layers OptimizePlus -delay 5x100 *mask.gif -loop 0 mask_animation.gif

When a configuration file containing XDI metadata is used, the output files will be written in XDI format. This is particularly handy for the RIXS function. If XDI metadata is provided, then the BLA.pixel_ratio metadatum will be written to the output file. This number is computed from the number of pixels illuminated in the mask at each emission energy. The pixel ratio for an emission energy is the number of pixels from the emission energy with the largest number of illuminated pixels divided by the number of illuminated pixels at that energy.

The pixel ratio can be used to normalize the mu(E) data from each emission energy. The concept is that the normalized mu(E) data are an approximation of what they would be if each emission energy was equally represented on the face of the detector.

The version of Athena based on Demeter will be able to use these values as importance or plot multiplier values if the Xray::XDI module is available.

Apply share/PGG/PGG.patch to /usr/local/share/perl/5.20.2/PDL/Graphics/Gnuplot.pm to suppress the Reading ras files from sequential devices not supported warning when using the qt terminal. This is a qt issue and appears to be of no consequence.

Around line 3116 of PDL::Graphics::Gnuplot, add the following line:

$optionsWarnings =~ s/^Reading ras files from sequential devices not supported.*$//mg;
$optionsWarnings = '' if($optionsWarnings =~ m/^\s+$/s);

Similar near lines 3256, 3301.