Development of a non-destructive depth-selective quantification method for sub-percent carbon contents in steel using negative muon lifetime analysis

Ninomiya, Kazuhiko*; Kubo, Kenya*; Inagaki, Makoto*; Yoshida, Go*; Chiu, I.-H. ; Kudo, Takuto*; Asari, Shunsuke*; Sentoku, Sawako*; Takeshita, Soshi*; Shimomura, Koichiro*; et al.

Scientific Reports (Internet), 14, p.1797_1 - 1797_8, 2024/01

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-52255-5

The amount of C in steel, which is critical in determining its properties, is strongly influenced by steel production technology. We propose a novel method of quantifying the bulk C content in steel non-destructively using muons. This revolutionary method may be used not only in the quality control of steel in production, but also in analyzing precious steel archaeological artifacts. A negatively charged muon forms an atomic system owing to its negative charge, and is finally absorbed into the nucleus or decays to an electron. The lifetimes of muons differ significantly, depending on whether they are trapped by Fe or C atoms, and identifying the elemental content at the muon stoppage position is possible via muon lifetime measurements. The relationship between the muon capture probabilities of C/Fe and the elemental content of C exhibits a good linearity, and the C content in the steel may be quantitatively determined via muon lifetime measurements. Furthermore, by controlling the incident energies of the muons, they may be stopped in each layer of a stacked sample consisting of three types of steel plates with thicknesses of 0.5 mm, and we successfully determined the C contents in the range 0.20 - 1.03 wt% depth-selectively, without sample destruction.

None

Iriya, Keishiro*; Kubo, Hiroshi*; *; *

PNC TJ1201 98-003, 298 Pages, 1998/02

PNC-TJ1201-98-003.pdf:18.41MB

None

Expansion induced by ion bombardment in crystals of LiF and NaF

Journal of the Physical Society of Japan, 38(3), P. 902, 1975/03

no abstracts in English

Conversion of color centers in NaF during proton bombardment at temperature above RT

Journal of the Physical Society of Japan, 38(1), P. 288, 1975/01

no abstracts in English

Depths of the regions damaged by protons, deuterons and -particles in lithium fluoride single crystal

Journal of the Physical Society of Japan, 36(6), p.1593 - 1596, 1974/06

https://doi.org/10.1143/JPSJ.36.1593

no abstracts in English

The Depth distribution of F center density in lithium fluoride crystal bombarded with electrons

Journal of the Physical Society of Japan, 37(5), P. 1469, 1974/05

no abstracts in English

Effects in the proton bombardment of NaF crystals, 2; Depth profile of damage in microhardness

Journal of the Physical Society of Japan, 35(1), p.125 - 129, 1973/01

https://doi.org/10.1143/JPSJ.35.125

no abstracts in English

(Observation of dislocations); Decoration method

Oyo Butsuri, 41(7), P. 725, 1972/07

http://joi.jlc.jst.go.jp/JST.Journalarchive/oubutsu1932/41.725

no abstracts in English

Dislocations Observed in NaF Crystals, I; Rosette Structure and Its Changes under External Stress

Journal of the Physical Society of Japan, 28(1), p.177 - 187, 1970/01

https://doi.org/10.1143/JPSJ.28.177

no abstracts in English

Identification of dislocation in NaF crystals by electrolytic coloration and chemical etching

Journal of the Physical Society of Japan, 26(1), p.143 - 148, 1969/00

https://doi.org/10.1143/JPSJ.26.143

no abstracts in English