Julia Wagner

Early precipitation during cooling of an Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloy revealed by in situ small angle X-ray scattering

Early subnanometre cluster formation during quenching of a high-strength AA7449 aluminium alloy was investigated using in situ small angle X-ray scattering. Fast quench cooling was obtained by using a laser-based heating system. The size and number density of homogeneous nucleated clusters were found to be strongly dependent on the cooling rate, while the volume fraction of cluster formation is independent of the cooling rate. Heterogeneous larger precipitation starts at higher temperatures in volume fractions that depend on the cooling rate.

Versatile module for experiments with focussing neutron guides

We report the development of a versatile module that permits fast and reliable use of focussing neutron guides under varying scattering angles. A simple procedure for setting up the module and neutron guides is illustrated by typical intensity patterns to highlight operational aspects as well as typical parasitic artefacts. Combining a high-precision alignment table with separate housings for the neutron guides on kinematic mounts, the change-over between neutron guides with different focussing characteristics requires no readjustments of the experimental set-up. Exploiting substantial gain factors, we demonstrate the performance of this versatile neutron scattering module in a study of the effects of uniaxial stress on the domain populations in the transverse spin density wave phase of single crystal Cr.

An APT investigation of an amorphous Cr–B–C thin film

A magnetron sputtered amorphous Cr-B-C thin film was investigated by means of atom probe tomography (APT). The film is constituted of two phases; a Cr-rich phase present as a few nanometer large regions embedded in a Cr-poor phase (tissue phase). The Cr-rich regions form columnar chains oriented parallel to the growth direction of the film. It was found that the Cr-rich regions have a higher B:C ratio than the Cr-poor regions. The composition of the phases was determined as approximately 35Cr-33B-30C and 15Cr-40B-42C (at%), respectively. The results suggest that this type of nanocomposite films has a more complex structure than previously anticipated, which may have an importance for the mechanical and electrical properties.

Neutron resonance spin flippers: Static coils manufactured by electrical discharge machining

Radiofrequency spin flippers (RFSF) are key elements of Neutron Resonance Spin Echo (NRSE) spectrometers, which allow performing controlled manipulations of the beam polarization. We report on the design and test of a new type of RFSF which originality lies in the new manufacturing technique for the static coil. The largely automated procedure ensures reproducible construction as well as an excellent homogeneity of the neutron magnetic resonance condition over the coil volume. Two salient features of this concept are the large neutron window and the closure of the coil by a μ-metal yoke which prevents field leakage outside of the coil volume. These properties are essential for working with large beams and enable new applications with coils tilted with respect to the beam axis such as neutron Larmor diffraction or the study of dispersive excitations by inelastic NRSE.