Study of tempering behavior of lath martensite using in situ neutron diffraction

To elucidate changes in the density and substructure of dislocations during tempering of lath martensite steel, a convolutional multiple whole-profile fitting method was applied to in situ neutron diffraction profiles. With increasing tempering temperature, the dislocation density scarcely changed in the beginning and then decreased at temperatures above 473 K, whereas the dislocation arrangement drastically changed at temperatures above 673 K. The strength of the steel is speculated to depend on the density and arrangement of dislocations. - Highlights: • A convolutional multiple whole-profile fitting method was applied. • Dislocation density and dislocation arrangement changing with tempering were discussed. • Dislocation density scarcely changed in the beginning. • And then dislocation density decreased at temperatures above 473 K. • The dislocation arrangement drastically changed at temperatures above 673 K