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Electron backscatter diffraction of grain and subgrain structures — resolution considerations
Author(s) -
HUMPHREYS F. J.,
HUANG Y.,
BROUGH I.,
HARRIS C.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
journal of microscopy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.569
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1365-2818
pISSN - 0022-2720
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2818.1999.00579.x
Subject(s) - electron backscatter diffraction , materials science , field emission gun , optics , diffraction , resolution (logic) , kikuchi line , scanning electron microscope , grain boundary , image resolution , microstructure , tungsten , angular resolution (graph drawing) , electron diffraction , reflection high energy electron diffraction , physics , metallurgy , composite material , mathematics , combinatorics , artificial intelligence , computer science
Characterization of microstructures containing small grains or low‐angle grain boundaries by electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) is limited by the spatial and angular resolution limits of the technique. It was found that the best effective spatial resolution (60 nm) for aluminium alloys in a tungsten‐filament scanning electron microscope (SEM) was obtained for an intermediate probe current which provided a compromise between pattern quality and specimen interaction volume. The same specimens and EBSD equipment when used with a field‐emission gun SEM showed an improvement in spatial resolution by a factor of 2–3. For characterizing low‐angle boundary microstructures, the precision of determining relative orientations is a limiting factor. It was found that the orientation noise was directly related to the probe current and this was interpreted in terms of the effect of probe current on the quality of the diffraction patterns.