Metals under thermo-mechanical processes: In-situ neutron diffraction versus synchrotron high-energy x-rays

Both neutron and synchrotron high-energy X-rays have penetrating power into metals, and intensities are competitive for ex- and in-situ studies of thermo-mechanical processes. They bear great potential in order to speed up materials design by orders of magnitude. Although it is well recognized that both neutrons and synchrotron radiation need to be combined, the user groups are still pretty distinct. The present contribution will upraise novel pioneering experiments on selected metal systems and showcase the complementarity. Neutrons bear the advantage of averaging over larger volumina and therefore, are less dependent on grain statistics, leading to good, quantitative phase analysis and texture measurements. The contrast, different to X-rays has been employed to investigate order-disorder transitions in titaniums aluminides, and dynamical theory of diffraction effects lead to the study of smallest distortions, and their kinetics at high temperature. Synchrotron X-rays allow to focus on a small number of crystallites, showing up traces of grain evolution in reciprocal space, such as grain rotation, grain growth, phase correlations, dynamic recovery and recrystallization, like in a Materials Oscilloscope.