Industrial Applications of Crystallography

The Cable Industry

Micro XRD of Filaments in Superconducting Tapes:

• Filaments contained within superconducting tapes are around 500 microns wide and getting smaller
• With conventional diffractometers the X-ray beam covers all the filaments in the tape simultaneously
• Using Micro-XRD individual filaments can be analysed and phase differences identified

Microdiffractometer Instrumentation

Alongside is a Video image of superconductor tape with conducting filaments exposed by polishing the tape at an oblique angle. Each filament is about 200-500 microns thick

Diffraction frame and integrated diffraction pattern obtained for superconductor filament after 10 minutes using 500 micron X-ray beam