The blurring in strains measured at a pulsed neutron source introduced by the use of a detector with a large angular coverage

The use of neutron diffraction as a tool for measuring strain in crystalline materials has grown in the past decade. A new generation of instruments are presently in the design or construction phase with large detector arrays, in order to reduce measurement times. The effect of using the average results obtained from a detector covering a large angular spread is considered for neutron strain scanning measurements. Two idealised sample strain distributions are considered. Simple calculations suggest that detector arrays on existing strain diffractometers do indeed produce strain determinations which are representative of the 'true' state of the sample, but that care will have to be taken with analysis of data from designs proposed for second generation diffractometers. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.