A high-transmission furnace insert for neutron powder diffraction studies at high temperatures under a pressurized reactive atmosphere

A new furnace insert has been devised in which a sample can be studied using neutron scattering techniques in situ under several atmospheres of gas pressure and temperatures up to 1350 K. The insert is made of vanadium, which possesses excellent thermal properties and is moderately resistant to oxidation, as well as being a nearly pure incoherent neutron scatterer. The device has been tested to 1350 K under 0.86 MPa (8.5 atmospheres) of CO: to study the order-disorder transition in calcite.