Texture and microstructure analysis with high-energy synchrotron radiation

Abstract

Diffraction of high-energy synchrotron radiation with wavelengths in the range of 0.1 Å, provided by the beamline BW5 at HASYLAB in Hamburg, was used to measure textures (orientation distribution) and microstructures (spatial distribution) of the crystallites in various polycrystalline materials. In order to achieve extremely high angular-combined with very high lateral resolution a continuous sweeping technique with an area detector was employed. This technique “images” three different types of two-dimensional sections and projections of the six-dimensional orientation–location space onto the area detector. In many cases the orientations and locations of all individual grains of the sample can thus be seen simultaneously. The high penetration depth of this radiation in the range of several centimeters (comparable with that of neutrons) allows investigating big or capsulated samples. Examples are given of grain-resolved recrystallization textures, a soldering seam, a filled beverage can, and the orientation distribution of kamacite lamellae in an iron meteorite, elucidating the orientation relationship of the γ→α transformation in iron.