Quantitative characterization of Japanese ancient swords through energy-resolved neutron imaging

Status and prospects in neutron tomography

“…This can be a crystal monochromator, velocity selector, or using a pulsed neutron beam and time-of-fl ight energy selection. Using energy selective tomography it is possible to identify regions with different crystalline structures in the sample using the cross section at energies before and after a characteristic Bragg-edge for the investigated material [8]. Taking this idea one step further is to add a second detector that is located on position such that it can acquire the diffracted neutrons also.…”

Revealing the secrets of composite helmets of ancient Japanese tradition

“…Neutron diffraction techniques have been recently applied to the study of metal artefacts of archaeological and historical origin, and have given detailed information on bulk properties (e.g., phase composition, texture, residual strain distribution), which has allowed us to obtain information on the manufacturing techniques from crystallographic details [5]. On a much larger length scale, neutron-imaging techniques [6] can add useful information about the bulk conservation status and the inner structure of the artefact [7][8][9][10][11][12]. Neutron imaging can be used for non-destructive evaluation of such inner properties starting with single radiographies up to 3D tomographic reconstructions, obtained by multiple image acquisitions.…”

Pulsed Neutron Imaging Based Crystallographic Structure Study of a Japanese Sword made by Sukemasa in the Muromachi Period

“…Materials Research Forum LLC Materials Research Proceedings 15 (2020) 207-213 https://doi.org/10.21741/9781644900574-32 establish non-destructive analysis methods to identify some peculiar characteristics related to the sword making procedure. Neutron experiments are a powerful tool to study metallic cultural heritage objects due to their high penetrating power and capability to give micro-structural properties [4,5]. Bragg-edge transmission (BET) imaging, in particular, gives real-space distributions of bulk information in the Japanese sword [6].…”