Synthesizing pseudo-Kossel lines from neutron transmission data. I. An analytical approach for recovering single-crystal orientation

L. L. Dessieux, A. D. Stoica, M. J. Frost, A. M. dos Santos

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

The energy-dispersive neutron spectra transmitted through single crystals are characterized by sharp Bragg dips at specific wavelengths, where Bragg’s law is being fulfilled for certain crystallographic planes. This phenomenon allows for developing methods for crystal-orientation determination techniques similar to electron backscatter diffraction and X-ray diffraction microscopy. This work presents a new procedure to recover the orientation matrix for single crystals using transmission spectra recorded during rotation of a crystal about an axis perpendicular to a polychromatic neutron beam. The proposed method consists of an initial transformation of the as-collected wavelength–rotation maps to a wavevector K space, resulting in linear pseudo-Kossel lines that are suitable for analysis and indexing using image-processing procedures. Simulated neutron transmission spectra through a copper crystal with known orientations were used to set and prove the numerical approach. This technique may be expanded for cases where the neutron beam intersects multiple single-crystal grains with different orientations.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)477-490
Number of pages14
JournalJournal of Applied Crystallography
Volume56
Issue numberPt 2
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 30 2023

Funding

This research used resources at the Spallation Neutron Source, a DOE Office of Science User Facility operated by Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The authors acknowledge the very useful suggestion of Andrei Savici on the conceptual basis for this work. The authors also thank Andrew Payzant for useful comments and his help with improving this manuscript. The authors would like to thank the anonymous referees for their constructive input to this manuscript.

Keywords

  • Bragg dips
  • Hough transform
  • Kossel lines
  • UB matrices
  • neutron transmission
  • orientation matrices
  • single crystals

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Synthesizing pseudo-Kossel lines from neutron transmission data. I. An analytical approach for recovering single-crystal orientation'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this