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Title: Non-Destructive Study of Bulk Crystallinity and Elemental Composition of Natural Gold Single Crystal Samples by Energy-Resolved Neutron Imaging

Abstract

Energy-resolved neutron imaging enables non-destructive analyses of bulk structure and elemental composition, which can be resolved with high spatial resolution at bright pulsed spallation neutron sources due to recent developments and improvements of neutron counting detectors. This technique, suitable for many applications, is demonstrated here with a specific study of ~5–10mm thick natural gold samples. Through the analysis of neutron absorption resonances the spatial distribution of palladium (with average elemental concentration of ~0.4 atom% and ~5 atom%) is mapped within the gold samples. At the same time, the analysis of coherent neutron scattering in the thermal and cold energy regimes reveals which samples have a single-crystalline bulk structure through the entire sample volume. A spatially resolved analysis is possible because neutron transmission spectra are measured simultaneously on each detector pixel in the epithermal, thermal and cold energy ranges. With a pixel size of 55μm and a detector-area of 512 by 512 pixels, a total of 262,144 neutron transmission spectra are measured concurrently. The results of our experiments indicate that high resolution energy-resolved neutron imaging is a very attractive analytical technique in cases where other conventional nondestructive methods are ineffective due to sample opacity.

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [5]
  1. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
  2. Miami Univ., Oxford, OH (United States)
  3. Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) (Japan)
  4. Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), Oxford (United Kingdom). Rutherford Appleton Lab. (RAL)
  5. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
NOVA Scientific Inc., Sturbridge, MA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
OSTI Identifier:
1624885
Grant/Contract Number:  
FG02-07ER86322; FG02-08ER86353; SC0009657
Resource Type:
Journal Article: Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Scientific Reports
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 7; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 2045-2322
Publisher:
Nature Publishing Group
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS; Science & technology - other topics; Characterization and analytical techniques; Imaging techniques

Citation Formats

Tremsin, Anton S., Rakovan, John, Shinohara, Takenao, Kockelmann, Winfried, Losko, Adrian S., and Vogel, Sven C. Non-Destructive Study of Bulk Crystallinity and Elemental Composition of Natural Gold Single Crystal Samples by Energy-Resolved Neutron Imaging. United States: N. p., 2017. Web. doi:10.1038/srep40759.
Tremsin, Anton S., Rakovan, John, Shinohara, Takenao, Kockelmann, Winfried, Losko, Adrian S., & Vogel, Sven C. Non-Destructive Study of Bulk Crystallinity and Elemental Composition of Natural Gold Single Crystal Samples by Energy-Resolved Neutron Imaging. United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep40759
Tremsin, Anton S., Rakovan, John, Shinohara, Takenao, Kockelmann, Winfried, Losko, Adrian S., and Vogel, Sven C. 2017. "Non-Destructive Study of Bulk Crystallinity and Elemental Composition of Natural Gold Single Crystal Samples by Energy-Resolved Neutron Imaging". United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep40759. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1624885.
@article{osti_1624885,
title = {Non-Destructive Study of Bulk Crystallinity and Elemental Composition of Natural Gold Single Crystal Samples by Energy-Resolved Neutron Imaging},
author = {Tremsin, Anton S. and Rakovan, John and Shinohara, Takenao and Kockelmann, Winfried and Losko, Adrian S. and Vogel, Sven C.},
abstractNote = {Energy-resolved neutron imaging enables non-destructive analyses of bulk structure and elemental composition, which can be resolved with high spatial resolution at bright pulsed spallation neutron sources due to recent developments and improvements of neutron counting detectors. This technique, suitable for many applications, is demonstrated here with a specific study of ~5–10mm thick natural gold samples. Through the analysis of neutron absorption resonances the spatial distribution of palladium (with average elemental concentration of ~0.4 atom% and ~5 atom%) is mapped within the gold samples. At the same time, the analysis of coherent neutron scattering in the thermal and cold energy regimes reveals which samples have a single-crystalline bulk structure through the entire sample volume. A spatially resolved analysis is possible because neutron transmission spectra are measured simultaneously on each detector pixel in the epithermal, thermal and cold energy ranges. With a pixel size of 55μm and a detector-area of 512 by 512 pixels, a total of 262,144 neutron transmission spectra are measured concurrently. The results of our experiments indicate that high resolution energy-resolved neutron imaging is a very attractive analytical technique in cases where other conventional nondestructive methods are ineffective due to sample opacity.},
doi = {10.1038/srep40759},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1624885}, journal = {Scientific Reports},
issn = {2045-2322},
number = 1,
volume = 7,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Jan 19 00:00:00 EST 2017},
month = {Thu Jan 19 00:00:00 EST 2017}
}

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Cited by: 21 works
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Figures / Tables:

Figure 1 Figure 1: Schematic diagram of experimental setup at a pulsed neutron source. (a) Neutron pulses travel from the source towards the sample and detector, which measures position X,Y and time T (determined relative to the time of spallation) for each registered neutron. (b) The measurement result is a set ofmore » neutron transmission images, each corresponding to a specific neutron energy. (c) Neutron transmission spectra measured for one of the samples (N3), extracted from the set of neutron transmission images; the solid line is the transmission calculated from the tabulated cross sections of Au and Pd. (d) Calibration of the flight path L and the source trigger delay ΔT0.« less

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Works referenced in this record:

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Works referencing / citing this record:

Neutron Imaging at LANSCE—From Cold to Ultrafast
journal, February 2018


Energy-resolved neutron imaging options at a small angle neutron scattering instrument at the Australian Center for Neutron Scattering
journal, March 2019


Neutron Imaging at LANSCE—From Cold to Ultrafast
journal, February 2018


Materials and Life Science Experimental Facility (MLF) at the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex II: Neutron Scattering Instruments
journal, November 2017


Neutron microtomography of voids in gold
journal, January 2017


On the anomalous shapes of native copper crystals from the Michigan Copper Country
journal, January 2021


Figures/Tables have been extracted from DOE-funded journal article accepted manuscripts.