APPLICATIONS OF NEUTRON RADIOGRAPHY AND NEUTRON TOMOGRAPHY

Abstract

Neutron radiography and neutron tomography are techniques which are mature and readily accessible. They can be used to study the interior of large, complex objects with a resolution of ~100 μm, and observe non-periodic processes with a temporal resolution of a fraction of a second. Neutron radiographic investigations have already been carried out at high temperatures. There have been no radiographic investigations at high pressures up to now and there are several problems which need to be overcome in the construction of large volume autoclaves suitable for such studies. There have also been no tomographic investigations at high temperatures, although it should be straightforward to adopt available furnaces for such experiments. Time resolved studies of systems relevant to the earth sciences are also in their infancy, yet it is conceivable that dynamic neutron radiography will play a prominent role here in the future. The relatively large number of neutron radiography stations, which are available at nearly all neutron scattering facilities (e.g., FRM-II in Munich, PSI in Villigen, NIST in Gaithersburg, ILL in Grenoble) allows comparatively easy access to these techniques and hence, especially in conjunction with complementary techniques such as γ-ray, synchrotron or X-ray radiography and tomography, open new and exciting possibilities to study the interior of and processes in complex materials of relevance to the earth sciences. Copyright © Mineralogical Society of America.