virts/pyxtal

A code to generate atomic structure with symmetry

Content

• Content
• Introduction
• Quick Start
• Current Features
• Installation
• Citation
• How to contribute?
  • user
  • developer

Introduction

PyXtal is an open source Python package which was initiated by Qiang Zhu and Scott Fredericks at department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nevada Las Vegas. The goal of PyXtal is to develop a fundamental library to allow one to design the material structure with a certain symmetry constraint. So far, the package allows for generation/manipulation of crystals, with both general and special Wyckoff positions. These structures can exported to various structural formats for further study. See the documentation for information about installation and usage.

To contribute to this project, please check How to contribute?.

Quick Start

Check the following links to quickly understand how pyxtal works

• Atomic crystal
• Molecular crystal
• XRD

Current Features

• Generation of atomic structures for a given symmetry and stoichiometry (0-3D)
• Generation of molecular crystals (1-3D) with the support of special Wyckoff positions.
• Internal support of cif file and many other formats via pymatgen or ASE.
• Easy access to symmetry information (e.g., Wyckoff, site symmetry and international symbols).
• X-ray diffraction analysis and its online application
• Structural manipulation via symmetry constraint (group-subgroup relation)
• Geometry optimization from built-in and external optimization methods.

Installation

To install the code, one just needs to do

pip install pyxtal

or

pip install --upgrade git+https://github.com/qzhu2017/PyXtal.git@master

Citation

Fredericks S, Sayre D, Zhu Q*(2019) PyXtal: a Python Library for Crystal Structure Generation and Symmetry Analysis

@article{pyxtal,
    title={PyXtal: a Python Library for Crystal Structure Generation and Symmetry Analysis},
    author={Scott Fredericks and Dean Sayre and Qiang Zhu},
    year={2019},
    eprint={1911.11123},
    archivePrefix={arXiv},
    primaryClass={cond-mat.mtrl-sci}
}

How to contribute?

This is an open-source project. Its growth depends on the community. To contribute to PyXtal, you don't necessarily have to write the code. Any contributions from the following list will be helpful.

If you just want to use the code

• Star the PyXtal project via GitHub and recommend it to your colleagues/friends
• Open an issue to report the bug or address your wishlist
• Suggestions to improve our documentation

If you want to join the code development

• Fork the repository
• Suggest and implement new functions
• Send us the pull request