Application of neutron diffraction in materials science and engineering

Abstract

In materials science and engineering, neutron diffraction has continued to be developed and today is applied mainly to the study of crystallographic texture, micromechanics, residual stresses, and in situ studies of microstructural kinetics. Of key importance to the application of the technique has been an ongoing interaction between researchers at neutron laboratories with an interest and understanding of materials science and leaders in the research community, both in universities and national laboratories and in manufacturing industries. We have found that flexibility in approaching this interaction has been of great benefit and has enabled far more work to be performed with a greater range of collaborators more rapidly than would otherwise be the case. This interaction has lead to many important studies of materials and to the evolution of a service of relevance to materials engineering, the most recent of which will be reviewed briefly.