Compact low power infrared tube furnace for in situ X-ray powder diffraction

A Doran; L Schlicker; C M Beavers; S Bhat; M F Bekheet; A Gurlo

doi:10.1063/1.4973561

Compact low power infrared tube furnace for in situ X-ray powder diffraction

Rev Sci Instrum. 2017 Jan;88(1):013903. doi: 10.1063/1.4973561.

Authors

A Doran¹, L Schlicker², C M Beavers¹, S Bhat², M F Bekheet³, A Gurlo³

Affiliations

¹ Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
² Fachgebiet Disperse Feststoffe, Institut für Geo- und Materialwissenschaft, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Jovanka-Bontschits-St. 2, D-64285 Darmstadt, Germany.
³ Fachgebiet Keramische Werkstoffe/Chair of Advanced Ceramic Materials, Institut für Werkstoffwissenschaften- und technologien, Technische Universität Berlin, Hardenbergstr. 40, D-10623 Berlin, Germany.

PMID: 28147689
DOI: 10.1063/1.4973561

Abstract

We describe the development and implementation of a compact, low power, infrared heated tube furnace for in situ powder X-ray diffraction experiments. Our silicon carbide (SiC) based furnace design exhibits outstanding thermal performance in terms of accuracy control and temperature ramping rates while simultaneously being easy to use, robust to abuse and, due to its small size and low power, producing minimal impact on surrounding equipment. Temperatures in air in excess of 1100 °C can be controlled at an accuracy of better than 1%, with temperature ramping rates up to 100 °C/s. The complete "add-in" device, minus power supply, fits in a cylindrical volume approximately 15 cm long and 6 cm in diameter and resides as close as 1 cm from other sensitive components of our experimental synchrotron endstation without adverse effects.