  Samples were examined using a superconducting (Nb) neutron imaging system
employing a delay-line technique which in previous studies was shown to have
high spatial resolution. We found excellent correspondence between neutron
transmission and scanning electron microscope (SEM) images of Gd islands with
sizes between 15 and 130 micrometer which were thermally-sprayed onto a Si
substrate. Neutron transmission images could be used to identify tiny voids in
a thermally-sprayed continuous Gd2O3 film on a Si substrate which could not be
seen in SEM images. We also found that neutron transmission images revealed
pattern formations, mosaic features and co-existing dendritic phases in Wood's
metal samples with constituent elements Bi, Pb, Sn and Cd. These results
demonstrate the merits of the current-biased kinetic inductance detector
(CB-KID) system for practical studies in materials science. Moreover, we found
that operating the detector at a more optimal temperature (7.9 K) appreciably
improved the effective detection efficiency when compared to previous studies
conducted at 4 K. This is because the effective size of hot-spots in the
superconducting meanderline planes increases with temperature, which makes
particle detections more likely.
