Development of a non-destructive carbon quantification method in iron by negative muon lifetime measurement

二宮 和彦*; 久保 謙哉*; 稲垣 誠*; 吉田 剛*; 竹下 聡史*; 反保 元伸*; 下村 浩一郎*; 河村 成肇*; Strasser, P.*; 三宅 康博*; et al.

Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry, 333(7), p.3445 - 3450, 2024/07

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-023-09289-2

A novel nondestructive light element analysis method for bulk materials using muon beams was demonstrated. This method is based on the lifetime measurement of muons in a material and performed by measuring muon-decay electrons and identifying elements using the atomic number based on muon lifetimes. Muon irradiation on pure iron and two steel samples with known carbon contents was conducted to prepare a calibration curve for the quantitative analysis. We also performed a muon lifetime measurement for a Japanese sword and successfully determined its carbon content as 0.51 wt% using the calibration curve, without sample destruction.