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.