Materials oscilloscope

A materials oscilloscope is a time-resolved synchrotron high-energy X-ray technique to study rapid phase composition and microstructural related changes in a polycrystalline sample.

[2][3] Two-dimensional diffraction images of a fine synchrotron beam interacting with the specimen are recorded in time frames, such that reflections stemming from individual crystallites of the polycrystalline material can be distinguished.

[3] The traces, so-called timelines in azimuthal-angle/time plots resemble to traces of an oscilloscope, giving insight on the processes happening in the material, while undergoing plastic deformation, or heating, or both,[4][5][6][7][8][9][10] These timelines allow to distinguish grain growth or refinement, subgrain formation, slip deformation systems, crystallographic twinning, dynamic recovery, dynamic recrystallization, simultaneously in multiple phases.

While ESRF and APS played the major role in experimental facilities, the Japanese high-energy synchrotron in the round, SPring-8 followed in 2013 by performing feasibility studies of this kind.

Meanwhile, the new PETRA III synchrotron at DESY built a dedicated beamline for this purpose, opening the Materials Oscilloscope investigations to a larger public.