Strain measurement of the directionally solidified eutectic Al2O3/Y3Al5O12 (YAG) ceramic by neutron diffraction

The eutectic Al2O3/Y3Al5O12 (YAG) ceramic has been reported to be composed by single-crystalline Al2O3 and YAG, the microstructure of which is characterized by the three dimensionally entangled two single-crystalline composites. Therefore, Laue diffraction and high-resolved energy-dispersive neutron diffraction (time-of-flight method) techniques were employed to measure residual strain precisely. It was found that the YAG phase was in tension and the Al2O3 phase was in compression with strains in the range of ∼10−4 at room temperature through comparing the lattice spacings of the sintered YAG and sintered Al2O3 as the references of strain-free materials.