Pattern decomposition and quantitative-phase analysis in pulsed neutron transmission

Neutron diffraction methods provide accurate quantitative insight into material properties with applications ranging from fundamental physics to applied engineering research. Neutron radiography or tomography on the other hand, are useful tools in the non-destructive spatial imaging of materials or engineering components, but are less accurate with respect to any quantitative analysis. It is possible to combine the advantages of diffraction and radiography using pulsed neutron transmission in a novel way. Using a pixellated detector at a time-of-flight source it is possible to collect 2D ‘images’ containing a great deal of interesting information in the thermal regime. This together with the unprecedented intensities available at spallation sources and improvements in computing power allow for a re-assessment of the transmission methods. It opens the possibility of simultaneous imaging of diverse material properties such as strain or temperature, as well as the variation in attenuation, and can assist in the determination of phase volume fraction. Spatial and time resolution (for dynamic experiment) are limited only by the detector technology and the intensity of the source. In this example, phase information contained in the cross-section is extracted from Bragg edges using an approach similar to pattern decomposition.