Method for in situ texture investigation of recrystallization of Cu and Ti by high-energy synchrotron X-ray diffraction

High-energy synchrotron radiation has been used to study in situ annealing of cold-rolled Cu and Ti. The measurements were performed using a high-vacuum furnace in transmission geometry and an area detector. The diffraction images were subsequently processed to extract the orientation distribution. The recrystallization process could be followed with a time resolution of the order of 10 s, and good pole figures could be obtained from the very limited amount of data in single diffraction images. The pole figures compare favorably with pole figures of the same material measured ex situ with a conventional pole figure goniometer. For Cu, a rapid and complete change from a typical rolling texture to a cube texture was observed after annealing for 20 min at 650 °C. For Ti, changes were more subtle with a tendency for c-axes to diminish near the normal direction, as well as for a-axes to become aligned with the rolling direction. The method makes it feasible to study the kinetics of recrystallization with quantitative texture analysis. © 2003 Carl Hanser Verlag, München.