Characterization of textured materials by time-of-flight transmission

JAVIER ROBERTO SANTISTEBAN; EDWARDS, L; STELMUKH, V

PHYSICA B - CONDENSED MATTER

Año: 2006 vol. 385 p. 636 - 638

0921-4526

Many materials are polycrystals with a non-random distribution of orientations. In these materials many physical properties are anisotropic. In particular, the transmission of thermal neutrons through textured materials is strongly dependent on the neutron wavelength and the specimen orientation. Here we show the large variation that exists in the neutron total cross section of naturally occurring and manmade objects, as opposed to the simple behaviour expected for randomly oriented crystallites. We report time-of-flight (TOF) transmission measurements along different sample orientations on a range of metal objects. We discuss the possibilities of the technique for the non-destructive characterization of the spatial variation of texture across macroscopic specimens. Finally, we provide an expression relating the orientation-dependent total cross section with the pole figures measured on traditional diffraction experiments.