Thermal microstress measurements in Al2O3/SiC nanocomposites by Cr3+ fluorescence microscopy

Alumina/SiC ‘nanocomposites’ show significant property improvements compared with pure alumina. The improvements are thought to stem at least in part from the microstresses caused by the thermal expansion mismatch between alumina and SiC. These microstresses have been measured previously by neutron and X-Ray diffraction. This paper reports stress measurements using Cr3+ fluorescence microscopy of the alumina matrix. The results show that although fluorescence microscopy is less powerful than the diffraction techniques in terms of the range of information provided, it does provide an alternative method of measuring subsurface microstresses in these materials which is quicker, cheaper and higher in spatial resolution.