Hugo Rietveld

Hugo M. Rietveld (7 March 1932 – 16 July 2016) was a Dutch crystallographer who is famous for single handedly publishing joint work of Loopstra, van Laar and himself on the full profile refinement method in powder diffraction, which became later known as the Rietveld refinement method. The method was developed by Loopstra and van Laar and programmed in Algol by Rietveld to refine neutron diffraction data, but is applicable to other diffraction experiments as well, like X-ray diffraction. The Rietveld refinement uses a least squares approach to refine a theoretical line profile (calculated from a known or postulated crystal structure) until it matches the measured profile. The introduction of this technique which used the full profile instead of individual reflections was a significant step forward in the diffraction analysis of powder samples.