Mapping Grain Morphology and Grain Orientations by Laboratory Diffraction Contrast Tomography

Abstract

Crystallographic imaging (i.e. imaging of crystallites/grains in polycrystalline materials) is primarily known from electron microscopy, and particularly the introduction of the electron back-scattering diffraction (EBSD) technique in the early 1990’s, has made it a routine tool for research and/or development related to metallurgy, functional ceramics, semi-conductors, geology etc. The ability to image the grain structure in such materials is instrumental for understanding and optimization of material properties and processing. However, the destructive nature of 3D EBSD prevents the technique from directly evaluating the microstructure evolution when subject to either mechanical, thermal or other environmental conditions.