Effect of annealing on the magnetic microstructure of high-pressure torsion iron: the relevance of higher-order contributions to the magnetic small-angle neutron scattering cross section.

The development of higher-order micromagnetic small-angle neutron scattering theory in nanocrystalline materials is still in its infancy. One key challenge remaining in this field is understanding the role played by the microstructure on the magnitude and sign of the higher-order scattering contribution recently observed in nanocrystalline materials prepared by high-pressure torsion. By combining structural and magnetic characterization techniques, namely X-ray diffraction, electron backscattered diffraction and magnetometry with magnetic small-angle neutron scattering, this work discusses the relevance of higher-order terms in the magnetic small-angle neutron scattering cross section of pure iron prepared by high-pressure torsion associated with a post-annealing process. The structural analysis confirms: (i) the preparation of ultra-fine-grained pure iron with a crystallite size below 100 nm and (ii) rapid grain growth with increasing annealing temperature. The analysis of neutron data based on the micromagnetic small-angle neutron scattering theory extended to textured ferromagnets yields uniaxial magnetic anisotropy values that are larger than the magnetocrystalline value reported for bulk iron, supporting the existence of induced magnetoelastic anisotropy in the mechanically deformed samples. Furthermore, the neutron data analysis revealed unambiguously the presence of non-negligible higher-order scattering contributions in high-pressure torsion iron. Though the sign of the higher-order contribution might be related to the amplitude of the anisotropy inhomogeneities, its magnitude appears to be clearly correlated to the changes in the microstructure (density and/or shape of the defects) induced by combining high-pressure torsion and a post-annealing treatment.

Deformation Texture of Bulk Cementite Investigated by Neutron Diffraction.

Understanding the deformation mechanism of cementite such as on a slip plane is important with regard to revealing and improving the mechanical property of steels. However, the deformation behavior of cementite has not been well investigated because of the difficulty of sample preparation given the single phase structure of cementite. In this study, by fabricating bulk single phase cementite samples using the method developed by the authors, the deformation texture formed by uniaxial compression was investigated using both electron back scatter diffraction and neutron diffraction. The fabricated sample had a random texture before the compression. After applying a compressive strain of 0.5 at 833 K, (010) fiber texture was formed along the compressive axis. It has been suggested from this trend that the primary slip plane of cementite is (010).

Magnetic scattering in the simultaneous measurement of small-angle neutron scattering and Bragg edge transmission from steel.

Pulsed neutron sources enable the simultaneous measurement of small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) and Bragg edge transmission. This simultaneous measurement is useful for microstructural characterization in steel. Since most steels are ferromagnetic, magnetic scattering contributions should be considered in both SANS and Bragg edge transmission analyses. An expression for the magnetic scattering contribution to Bragg edge transmission analysis has been derived. The analysis using this expression was applied to Cu steel. The ferrite crystallite size estimated from this Bragg edge transmission analysis with the magnetic scattering contribution was larger than that estimated using conventional expressions. This result indicates that magnetic scattering has to be taken into account for quantitative Bragg edge transmission analysis. In the SANS analysis, the ratio of magnetic to nuclear scattering contributions revealed that the precipitates consist of body-centered cubic Cu0.7Fe0.3 and pure Cu, which probably has 9R structure including elastic strain and vacancies. These results show that effective use of the magnetic scattering contribution allows detailed analyses of steel microstructure.