Editorial

Particle beams play an important role in materials science.Electrons have been used to study crystallographic defects and precipitates since about 70 years.X-ray diffraction (XRD) has been a key technology for the understanding of crystal structure since almost 100 years.X-ray tubes were the main radiation source at the beginning.Mid of last century synchrotron radiation facilities became available as powerful X-ray sources.At about the same time experimental reactors and later spallation facilities became available as neutron sources for materials research.Such radiation sources were surrounded with beamlines having different characteristics in terms of energy, spot size, polarization etc. Together with increasing beam characteristics and performance as well as with the development of advanced detection units these machines became increasingly powerful tools for a wide range of materials research and development projects.Besides studies on very advanced materials and research in solid states physics these beamlines can also be used for better understanding and improvements of rather technical materials.The symposium was dedicated particularly to such applications.Diffraction, scattering, absorption and imaging are the main tools being used for materials characterization.The contributions covered a variety of materials like polymers, metals, coatings, composites, semi-conductors and dust.Applications discussed came from hydrogen storage, nuclear power plants, fuel cells, thermal barrier layers, cutting tools, residuals from municipal solid waste incinerators, validation of materials modeling and others.Amongst the effects studied were residual stress, pore distributions, diffusion, changes in chemical composition, magnetic properties and texture.The high intensity of X-ray beams allows also in-situ investigations like deformation of samples under load.Another in-situ test concerned the load transfer in a metal-ceramic composite.The results presented could be only obtained with these advanced beamlines which demonstrates the high value of these techniques also for rather applied research and development projects.Synchrotrons and neutron sources are very large and expensive facilities usually managed as user labs.Projects are often performed as collaboration between different partners.This is also reflected in the fact that in many papers three and even more research institutions were involved.In this landscape of a few large facilities, often overbooked, with different capabilities, different working rules, access rules and review procedures for proposals on the one hand and the increasing interest of the materials society in such tools on the other hand the DGM decided in 2006 to install a so called ''Fachausschuss'' for beamlines (FA Strahllinien).It operates as a platform for interested users (neutron and synchrotron) to exchange information about their work, about beamlines, application procedures and related issues.It should also help to make these techniques available for the solution of industrial materials problems.The symposium was organized by this FA.