Non-destructive characterisation of dopant spatial distribution in cuprate superconductors

The Neutron Imaging Instrument CONRAD—Post-Operational Review

“…The implementation of these new techniques as standard instrument options helped to expand the imaging capabilities of the beamline, allowing for imaging with polarized neutrons [ 7 , 8 , 9 ], Bragg-edge mapping [ 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 ], high-resolution neutron imaging [ 14 ] and grating interferometry [ 15 , 16 ]. These methods were offered to the user community as tools to help address scientific problems over a broad range of topics, such as superconductivity [ 17 ], materials research [ 18 , 19 ], life sciences [ 20 , 21 ], cultural heritage and paleontology [ 22 , 23 ]. Industrial applications, including fuel cell [ 24 , 25 ] and battery research [ 26 , 27 , 28 ], have also been fostered by these increased capabilities, which further helped to increase and improve the scientific output of the facility and to attract new users.…”

“…This arrangement helps to convert the precession angle of the neutron spin, accumulated while passing through a magnetic field, to image contrast. As a technique, it has some tantalizing prospects for the future study of magnetic phenomena throughout science and technology, including optimization of high-temperature superconducting materials by visualization and analysis of trapped magnetic flux in the bulk of superconductors at different temperatures [ 17 ], studies related to the skin effect in conductors [ 63 ], and phase mapping of ferro-to-paramagnetic transitions in bulk ferromagnets [ 64 ], Figure 7 . In some cases, the method allows for quantification of magnetic fields and can also be extended to three dimensions in analogy with standard tomography.…”