Mirror Furnace for Synchrotron Dark Field X-ray Microscopy Experiments

TL;DR

This paper introduces a versatile mirror furnace optimized for synchrotron X-ray experiments, capable of high temperature stability and rapid heating, enabling advanced crystalline material imaging techniques at ESRF.

Contribution

A novel multi-purpose mirror furnace designed specifically for synchrotron X-ray microscopy, with precise temperature control and compatibility with multiple imaging modalities.

Findings

Furnace reaches ~1600°C with stability better than 2°C.

Enables various X-ray microscopy techniques including DFXM and nanotomography.

First application demonstrated on heating of pure Al single crystal.

Abstract

We present a multi-purpose mirror furnace designed for synchrotron X-ray experiments. The furnace is optimized specifically for dark-field X-ray microscopy (DFXM) of crystalline materials at the beamline ID06 of the ESRF. The furnace can reach up to ~1600{\deg}C with stability better than 2{\deg}C, and heating and cooling rates up to 30{\deg}C/s. The contact-less design enables samples to be heated either in air or in a controlled atmosphere in a capillary tube. The temperature was calibrated via the thermal expansion of an a-iron grain. Temperature profiles in the y and z axes were measured by scanning a thermocouple through the focal spot of the furnace. In the current configuration of the beamline, the furnace can be used for DFXM, near-field X-ray topography, bright field X-ray nanotomography, high resolution reciprocal space mapping, and limited powder diffraction experiments. As a first application, we present a DFXM case study on isothermal heating of a commercially pure Al single crystal.