The purpose of this proposal is to obtain an x-ray set complete with Laue camera and a Straumanis camera for the Debye-Scherrer powder method. The x-ray set will be used in the undergraduate Materials Laboratory at the Thayer School of Engineering. This laboratory is utilized primarily for an undergraduate course in Materials Science, which is a required course for both the A.B. and B.E. degrees in Engineering Science. The Materials Science course is offered twice per year. The acquisition of an x-ray set, with radiation enclosure, will provide the students with a hands-on experience for performing measurements which are some of the most accurate in Materials Science. Whilst an x-ray set may not be considered to be a state-of-the-art piece of equipment, the undergraduate projects for which it will be used are. These include: high temperature superconductivity; optical properties of point defects phase diagram determination; mechanical properties of polymers; production and properties of metallic glasses; recovery, recrystallization and grain growth; processing and properties of nanocrystalline metals; and thin film processing of materials. The equipment chosen is a "no frills" set-up that can be used for orientation determination, phase identification, crystallization studies, and grain or subgrain size determination.
