An omega-scan artifact observed in Nicolet P3F diffractometers

This paper describes an instrumental artifact which has been observed in three Nicolet P3F diffractometers. In cases where the peaks are very sharp in ω, the artifact causes azimuthal or ψ scans to appear very noisy and to show a complex periodic variation of intensity with ψ. These intensity variations are reproducible. A simple correction is described which, when applied to the data, dramatically improves the appearance of these aberrant ψ scans. This correction is not limited to ψ scans and should improve the quality of all data collected on the machine.