Small-angle neutron scattering by spatially inhomogeneous ferromagnets with a nonzero average uniaxial anisotropy

Zaporozhets, V. D.*; 大場 洋次郎; Michels, A.*; Metlov, K. L.*

Journal of Applied Crystallography, 55(3), p.592 - 600, 2022/06

https://doi.org/10.1107/S160057672200437X

Micromagnetic theory well explains the magnetic small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) data of bulk ferromagnets. However, only the samples having random magnetic anisotropy are mainly handled. In this study, the micromagnetic SANS theory is extended to allow to analyze uniaxial magnetic anisotropy. Micromagnetic response functions for SANS are computed analytically for several practical arrangements of anisotropy and external magnetic field orientations. This theory agrees well with the experimental SANS data of a practical soft magnet and plastically-deformed Ni and successfully provides the uniaxial anisotropy quality factors.

Non-destructive characterization of the spatial variation of / lattice misfit in a single-crystal Ni-based superalloy by energy-resolved neutron imaging

Malamud, F.*; Santisteban, J. R.*; Gao, Y.*; 篠原 武尚; 及川 健一; Tremsin, A.*

Journal of Applied Crystallography, 55(2), p.228 - 239, 2022/04

https://doi.org/10.1107/S1600576722000164

Lattice misfit in nickel-based superalloys is one of the important microstructural parameters that control their mechanical properties, such as creep behaviour at high temperatures. Here, energy-resolved neutron imaging experiments are performed at a spallation neutron source to determine the spatial variation of lattice misfit on a second-generation nickel-based single-crystal superalloy specimen produced from a failed low-cycle fatigue specimen. An analysis of the position and width of those Laue peaks in the obtained transmission spectra allows determination of the lattice parameters of the and phases that compose the specimen, as well as the strain misfit and the misorientation between them. An analytical model is developed to describe the full wavelength pattern of Laue peaks arising from a specimen composed of two single crystals, and this model is used to perform least-squares refinements of the spectra measured at different positions of the specimen.

Polarization analysis for small-angle neutron scattering with a He spin filter at a pulsed neutron source

奥平 琢也; 上田 祐生; 廣井 孝介; 元川 竜平; 稲村 泰弘; 高田 慎一; 奥 隆之; 鈴木 淳市*; 高橋 慎吾*; 遠藤 仁*; et al.

Journal of Applied Crystallography, 54(2), p.548 - 556, 2021/04

https://doi.org/10.1107/S1600576721001643

Heスピンフィルタを中性子スピン解析子として使用することにより、パルス中性子源での中性子小角散乱実験において、偏極解析を行うことに成功した。本実験に使用したHeスピンフィルタは中性子小角散乱実験を行うために十分な立体角をカバーすることができ、He偏極緩和時間も数日と長く、これは実験を完遂するために十分な性能である。水素原子による非干渉性散乱は非常に大きく、試料の組成から計算によって非干渉性散乱量を見積もる試みが行われていたが、正確に非干渉性散乱量を決定することは難しかった。しかし本研究では試料内での中性子の多重散乱を考慮した偏極解析実験を行うことで、干渉性散乱と非干渉性散乱を正確に分離することが可能となった。現在までパルス中性子源での中性子小角散乱では、偏極解析の手法が確立されていなかったが、本成果によって、様々な種類の試料に対して干渉性散乱と非干渉性散乱を正確に分離することができるようになると予想される。

In-house texture measurement using a compact neutron source

徐 平光; 池田 義雅*; 箱山 智之*; 高村 正人*; 大竹 淑恵*; 鈴木 裕士

Journal of Applied Crystallography, 53(2), p.444 - 454, 2020/04

AA2019-0242.pdf:2.9MB

https://doi.org/10.1107/S1600576720002551

In order to improve the instrumental accessibility of neutron diffraction technique, the emerging compact neutron sources and in-house neutron diffractometers as a good complementary way have caused wide attention while their analysis precision seems problematic for the practical application. As a challenging project, the RIKEN accelerator-driven compact neutron source (RANS) was employed to establish the technical environment for texture measurement, and the recalculated pole figures and the orientation distribution function (ODF) of an interstitial-free (IF) steel sheet obtained from RANS were compared with the results from another two neutron diffractometers well-established for texture measurement. Moreover, the parameter "square integration of ODF difference" originally for evaluating the numerical error between the measured and simulated textures was generalized here to examine the reliability of RANS texture measurement. These quantitative comparisons revealed that the precise neutron diffraction texture measurement at RANS has been realized successfully and the following technical optimizations are much valuable, including the thickness selection of polyethylene moderator, the sample-to-detector distance, the BC shielding sheets for the reduced background noise, and the fine region division of the neutron detector panel. Moreover, the Rietveld texture analysis improves the texture reliability through avoiding the unfavorable influence of the uncertain diffraction intensity involved in the low counting, long wavelength incident neutrons at large scattering angles. Above technical results may accelerate the development of other easily accessible engineering materials evaluation techniques using compact neutron source, and also help to improve the data-collecting efficiency for various time-sliced scattering experiments at large neutron facilities.

Quasielastic neutron scattering of brucite to analyse hydrogen transport on the atomic scale

奥地 拓生*; 富岡 尚敬*; Purevjav, N.*; 柴田 薫

Journal of Applied Crystallography, 51, p.1564 - 1570, 2018/12

AA2018-0399.pdf:1.07MB

https://doi.org/10.1107/S1600576718013158

中性子準弾性散乱(QENS)は、鉱物結晶格子内で起こる原子スケール水素拡散プロセスを分析するための新規かつ有効な方法であることが実証されている。この方法は、凝縮体中の拡散性が高い水素原子または水分子の拡散頻度および距離を分析するために敏感であると以前から考えられていた。本論文では、水酸基として結晶格子に結合している非常に遅い運動の水素原子の拡散運動を分析する応用研究の結果が示されている。ブルーサイト鉱物( brucite)、Mg(OH)では、水素原子の単一の二次元層面内でのジャンプとそれに最も近い次の層へのジャンプの2種類の水素拡散プロセスが観察された。ブルーサイトの結晶構造内で観察されるこれらの拡散プロセスは、層状構造を有する様々な種類の酸化物およびミネラル内で起こる水素拡散現象にQENS測定が適用可能であることを示している。

High stereographic resolution texture and residual stress evaluation using time-of-flight neutron diffraction

徐 平光; Harjo, S.; 小島 真由美*; 鈴木 裕士; 伊藤 崇芳*; Gong, W.; Vogel, S. C.*; 井上 純哉*; 友田 陽*; 相澤 一也; et al.

Journal of Applied Crystallography, 51(3), p.746 - 760, 2018/06

AA2018-0163.pdf:3.0MB

https://doi.org/10.1107/S1600576718004004

Neutron diffraction texture measurements provide bulk textures with excellent grain statistics even for large grained materials, together with the crystallographic parameters and microstructure information such as phase fractions, coherent crystallite size, root mean square microstrain, macroscopic/intergranular stress/strain. The procedure for high stereographic resolution texture and residual stress evaluation was established at the TAKUMI engineering materials diffractometer. The pole figure evaluation of a limestone standard sample with a trigonal crystal structure suggested that the obtained precision for texture measurement is comparable with the oversea well-established neutron beam lines utilized for texture measurements. A high strength martensite-austenite multilayered steel was employed for further verification of the reliability of simultaneous Rietveld analysis of multiphase textures and macro stress tensors. By using a geometric mean micro-mechanical model, the macro stress tensor analysis with a plane stress assumption showed a RD-TD in-plane compressive stress (about -330 MPa) in martensite layers and a RD-TD in-plane tensile stress (about 320 MPa) in austenite layers. The phase stress partitioning was ascribed to the additive effect of volume expansion during martensite transformation and the linear contraction misfit during water quenching.

Energy-resolved small-angle neutron scattering from steel

大場 洋次郎*; 諸岡 聡; 大石 一城*; 鈴木 淳市*; 高田 慎一; 佐藤 信浩*; 井上 倫太郎*; 土山 聡宏*; Gilbert, E. P.*; 杉山 正明*

Journal of Applied Crystallography, 50(2), p.334 - 339, 2017/04

https://doi.org/10.1107/S1600576717000279

Recent progress of pulsed neutron sources has enabled energy-resolved analysis of neutron attenuation spectra, which include information on neutron scattering. In this study, a new analysis technique for small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) is demonstrated. A clear difference is observed in the neutron attenuation spectra between steels with different nanostructures; this difference can be understood as arising from attenuation due to SANS. The neutron attenuation spectra, calculated from the corresponding SANS profiles, agree well with the experimentally observed attenuation spectra. This result indicates that measurement of neutron attenuation spectra may enable the development of a novel experimental technique, i.e. energy-resolved SANS (ESANS).

Rapid measurement scheme for texture in cubic metallic materials using time-of-flight neutron diffraction at iMATERIA

小貫 祐介*; 星川 晃範*; 佐藤 成男*; 徐 平光; 石垣 徹*; 齋藤 洋一*; 轟 秀和*; 林 眞琴*

Journal of Applied Crystallography, 49(5), p.1579 - 1584, 2016/10

AA2016-0186.pdf:1.13MB

https://doi.org/10.1107/S160057671601164X

The authors have developed texture measurement system on a time-of flight neutron diffractometer, iMATERIA (BL20, MLF/J-PARC, Japan). Quantitative Rietveld texture analysis for a duplex stainless steel was possible with one neutron beam exposure for several minutes without sample rotation. The minimum number of diffraction spectra required for the Rietveld texture analysis was experimentally determined as 100. The suggested rapid measurement scheme used 132 spectra and determined volume fractions of texture components in both ferrite and austenite phases, quantitatively. This quantitative and rapid measurement scheme was established by utilizing the features of iMATERIA as a powder diffractometer, i.e. fairly high resolution in d-spacing and numerous detectors equipped in a wide range of scattering angle.

Investigation of dissimilar metal welds by energy-resolved neutron imaging

Tremsin, A. S.*; Ganguly, S.*; Meco, S. M.*; Pardal, G.*; 篠原 武尚; Bruce Feller, W.*

Journal of Applied Crystallography, 49(4), p.1130 - 1140, 2016/08

AA2016-0559.pdf:3.33MB

https://doi.org/10.1107/S1600576716006725

A nondestructive study of the internal structure and compositional gradient of dissimilar metal-alloy welds through energy-resolved neutron imaging is described in this paper. The presence of Bragg edges in the measured neutron transmission spectra can be used to characterize the internal residual strain within the samples and some microstructural features, while neutron resonance absorption provides the possibility to map the degree of uniformity in mixing of the participating alloys and intermetallic formation within the welds. This paper demonstrates the potential of neutron energy-resolved imaging to measure all these characteristics simultaneously in a single experiment with sub-mm spatial resolution.

High-speed three-dimensional reciprocal-space mapping during molecular beam epitaxy growth of InGaAs

Hu, W.; 鈴木 秀俊*; 佐々木 拓生*; 神津 美和*; 高橋 正光

Journal of Applied Crystallography, 45(5), p.1046 - 1053, 2012/10

https://doi.org/10.1107/S0021889812036175

This paper describes the development of a high-speed three-dimensional reciprocal-space mapping method designed for the real-time monitoring of the strain relaxation process during the growth of heterostructure semiconductors. Each three-dimensional map is obtained by combining a set of consecutive images, which are captured during the continuous rotation of the sample, and calculating the reciprocal-space coordinates from the detector coordinate system. Using this method, the strain relaxation process of InGaAs heteroepitaxial films grown on GaAs(001) has been investigated.