High-Temperature Furnace for an Imaging-Plate Data-Acquisition System

A compact furnace has been developed, for low-background high-temperature X-ray studies, that can be used routinely with an on-line imaging-plate scanner (MAR Research). The furnace operates under an inert-gas atmosphere between ambient temperature and 1500 K with a relative thermal stability of ±0.5 K in long-time experiments, and an absolute thermal reproducibility of 1% of the setting temperature in successive runs. Computer-controlled temperature regulation permits the automatic collection of in situ diffraction data on single crystals as well as on polycrystalline samples. Further characteristics are a large opening angle (2θ = 37°) window for diffracted beams allowing the collection of extensive data sets with Mo Kα radiation, low construction costs and easy handling. The practicability of the furnace is demonstrated on the example of decagonal Al_72.7Co_11.6Ni_15.7, which undergoes in the range between ambient temperature and 1200 K several phase transitions connected with complex scattering phenomena.