Current status of texture evaluation system based on iMATERIA neutron diffraction

Xu, P. G.   ; Suzuki, Tetsuya*; Ito, Takayoshi*; Ishigaki, Toru*; Morii, Yukio*

As a comprehensive material evaluation platform funded by Ibaraki Prefecture, iMATERIA neutron diffractometer at J-PARC/MLF is broadening its application fields and will be used to monitor the in situ microstructure/texture evolutions during thermomechanically controlled processes of advanced materials. Our previous experiments carried out with the other neutron diffractometers suggested that in order to improve the evaluation precision of bulk textures, the time-of-flight neutron detectors need to be grouped into small pixels to enhance the spatial resolution, and proper sample rotations are valuable to increase the pixel data coverage in the angle space. Therefore, the iMATERIA neutron detectors of the backscattering, 90 degrees, and low angle bank are divided into 358 pixel groups, which are more than those of the LANSCE/HIPPO neutron diffractometer (30 pixel groups) and the ISIS/GEM neutron diffractometer (166 pixel groups). If the beam shading effect of the goniometer body during the sample rotation is not taken into consideration, the pixel data will cover the full pole figure within 5 times of 2-axes rotations.