There is a generalized restraint where you could write your own function that 
will “push” your Frac values to be positive, but this would not be a good idea. 
If your Frac value(s) are negative by more than 2 sigma, then something is 
wrong. A value within 2 sigma of zero is experimentally indistinguishable from 
zero.

Usually this happens when you have site sharing and the refinement is trying to 
put more scattering density that 100% of the “heavy” atom or too little and the 
density is less than that of the “light” atom. In the “heavy” case are you sure 
about the site assignments? In the “light" case could you have vacancies? It is 
also possible that your data are insensitive to the scattering from that site 
and any value for the occupancy gives about the same fit. It is also possible 
your model is very far from correct and the model is not good enough for 
occupancies to be refined.  It is perfectly reasonable to set the occupancy as 
100% of one atom type and not refine that. Look to see if the Uiso value is 
reasonable.

If you are refining the occupancy of for a single atom that does not share a 
site and the occupancy goes below zero then with x-ray data you either have a 
serious problem with some other part of your model or there is no scattering 
density in that site and you should take that atom site out. With neutrons also 
consider an atom type with the opposite scattering phase (negative b).

In any case, a constraint would serve to hide that something is wrong with your 
result. A restraint would make it harder to do that, but still is not 
addressing the problem.

Brian

On Nov 19, 2019, at 10:17 AM, Hao Liu via GSAS-II 
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:

Hi,

Is there a way to constrain the atomic occupancy to be non-negative?

Thanks,
Hao
--
Hao Liu, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Chemistry Department, Binghamton University
4400 Vestal Parkway East, NY 13902
Tel: +1 (607) 777-4671
Group website<http://chemiris.chem.binghamton.edu/LIU/liu.html>
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