Shedding New Light on Microstructures.

• Position: Brief Article

MATERIALS

A unique, compact furnace combined with high-energy X-rays is giving researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames (Iowa) Laboratory the unprecedented ability to record directly the chemical and structural changes of complex materials at high temperatures under real processing conditions. This information is crucial to understanding and controlling the composition and microstructure of new materials. It used to take months or years to collect such data through the laborious process of heating, quenching, and then analyzing numerous samples.

The Ames researchers can now gather the data in just a few days while getting a more detailed picture of what happens to a material's crystal structure as it heats and cools. The system is ideal for complex materials such as structural ceramics, superconducting wires, and nanostructured materials. The insights gained may speed the development of new materials for use in fields such as aerospace engineering, electrical distribution systems, and microelectronics.

The furnace uses an analytical technique known as X-ray diffraction in which an X-ray beam is focused on a small sample of material. It is diffracted by the crystal structure of each material, producing a unique pattern of concentric circles, called Debye rings. By capturing images of the changes in the ring pattern as the material is heated and cooled, scientists gain a better fundamental understanding of what happens to the material's...