System and methods for characterizing a substance

1. A method for characterizing an unknown substance, said method comprising:

normalizing a diffraction profile of the unknown substance against a diffraction profile of a calibration substance to generate a normalized diffraction profile;

transforming the normalized diffraction profile into a logarithm;

fitting a first straight line to the logarithm;

determining a first gradient of the first straight line; and

characterizing the unknown substance based on the first gradient.

2. A method in accordance with claim 1 , wherein normalizing a diffraction profile of the unknown substance comprises determining a ratio function of the diffraction profile of the unknown substance and the diffraction profile of the calibration substance.

3. A method in accordance with claim 2 , wherein transforming the normalized diffraction profile comprises calculating a logarithm of the ratio function.

4. A method in accordance with claim 1 , further comprising determining that the first gradient is a second function of a difference between an effective atomic number of the unknown substance and an effective atomic number of the calibration substance.

5. A method in accordance with claim 1 , further comprising determining that the first gradient is a second function of an effective atomic number of the unknown substance and an effective atomic number of the calibration substance.

6. A method in accordance with claim 5 , further comprising generating an inverse of the second function.

7. A method in accordance with claim 6 , wherein said determining the effective atomic number of the unknown substance comprises calculating the effective atomic number from the inverse of the second function.

8. A method in accordance with claim 1 , further comprising determining a relative molecular interference function of the unknown substance by extrapolating the first straight line to a momentum transfer value.

9. A method in accordance with claim 1 , further comprising:

determining whether at least one channel P of the diffraction profile of the unknown material has a zero count of photons; and

when the at least one channel P has the zero count of photons, determining a channel P+1 that has a non-zero count of photons, wherein the channel P+1 is consecutive to the at least one channel P; and

summing a number of photons in the channel P+1; and

generating a second diffraction profile using the sum of the number of photons, wherein the second diffraction profile is included in a range of the diffraction profile of the unknown substance.

10. A method in accordance with claim 1 , further comprising determining a difference between the logarithm and the first straight line.

11. A method in accordance with claim 10 , further comprising calculating a relative molecular interference function of the unknown substance as a function of the difference.

12. A method in accordance with claim 1 , further comprising fitting a second straight line to the logarithm, wherein the second straight line is different than the first straight line.

13. A method in accordance with claim 12 , further comprising determining the second gradient of the second straight line as a second function of the first gradient, wherein the second gradient is other than the first gradient.

14. A method in accordance with claim 1 , further comprising acquiring the diffraction profile of the calibration substance by irradiating a white scatter object.

15. A method for characterizing an unknown substance, said method comprising:

acquiring a first diffraction profile of the unknown substance;

acquiring a second diffraction profile of a calibration substance; and

calculating an effective atomic number of the unknown substance using the first diffraction profile and the second diffraction profile, wherein said calculating comprises calculating the effective atomic number from a ratio function of the first diffraction profile and the second diffraction profile.

16. A method for characterizing an unknown substance, said method comprising:

acquiring a first diffraction profile of the unknown substance;

acquiring a second diffraction profile of a calibration substance; and

calculating a relative molecular interference function of the unknown substance using the first diffraction profile and the second diffraction profile, wherein calculating the relative molecular interference function comprises calculating the relative molecular interference function from a ratio function of the first diffraction profile and the second diffraction profile.

17. A system for characterizing an unknown substance, said system comprising:

an X-ray source configured to generate X-rays;

a detector configured to output a plurality of electrical signals by detecting the X-rays; and

a processor coupled to said X-ray source and said detector, said processor configured to:

normalize a diffraction profile of the unknown substance against a diffraction profile of a calibration substance to generate a normalized diffraction profile;

transform the normalized diffraction profile into a logarithm;

fit a first straight line to the logarithm;

determine a first gradient of the first straight line; and

characterize the unknown substance based on the first gradient.

18. A system in accordance with claim 17 , wherein said processor is further configured to determine a ratio function of the diffraction profile of the unknown substance and the diffraction profile of the calibration substance.

19. A system in accordance with claim 18 , wherein said processor is further configured to determine at least one of an effective atomic number and a relative molecular interference function using the first gradient.