Reflector Selection for the Indexing of Electron Backscatter Diffraction Patterns.

We propose a new methodology for ranking the reflectors used in traditional Hough-based indexing of electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) patterns. Instead of kinematic X-ray or electron structure factors (Fhkl) currently utilized, we propose the integrated Kikuchi band intensity parameter (ßhkl) based on integrated dynamical electron backscatter intensities. The proposed parameter is compared with the traditional kinematical intensity, , as well as the average Hough transform peak intensity, and used to index EBSD patterns for a number of different material systems of varying unit cell complexities including nickel, silicon, rutile, and forsterite. For elemental structures, ßhkl closely follows the kinematical ranking. However, significant ranking differences arise for more complex unit cells, with the ßhkl parameter showing a better correlation with the integrated Hough intensities. Finally, Hough-based indexing of a simulated forsterite data set showed an appreciable improvement in the median confidence index (0.15 to 0.35) when ßhkl is used instead of for ranking the reflectors.

Influence of Noise-Generating Factors on Cross-Correlation Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD) Measurement of Geometrically Necessary Dislocations (GNDs).

Studies of dislocation density evolution are fundamental to improved understanding in various areas of deformation mechanics. Recent advances in cross-correlation techniques, applied to electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) data have particularly shed light on geometrically necessary dislocation (GND) behavior. However, the framework is relatively computationally expensive-patterns are typically saved from the EBSD scan and analyzed offline. A better understanding of the impact of EBSD pattern degradation, such as binning, compression, and various forms of noise, is vital to enable optimization of rapid and low-cost GND analysis. This paper tackles the problem by setting up a set of simulated patterns that mimic real patterns corresponding to a known GND field. The patterns are subsequently degraded in terms of resolution and noise, and the GND densities calculated from the degraded patterns using cross-correlation ESBD are compared with the known values. Some confirmation of validity of the computational degradation of patterns by considering real pattern degradation is also undertaken. The results demonstrate that the EBSD technique is not particularly sensitive to lower levels of binning and image compression, but the precision is sensitive to Poisson-type noise. Some insight is also gained concerning effects of mixed patterns at a grain boundary on measured GND content.

Orientation precision of electron backscatter diffraction measurements near grain boundaries.

Electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) has become a common technique for measuring crystallographic orientations at spatial resolutions on the order of tens of nanometers and at angular resolutions <0.1°. In a recent search of EBSD papers using Google Scholar™, 60% were found to address some aspect of deformation. Generally, deformation manifests itself in EBSD measurements by small local misorientations. An increase in the local misorientation is often observed near grain boundaries in deformed microstructures. This may be indicative of dislocation pile-up at the boundaries but could also be due to a loss of orientation precision in the EBSD measurements. When the electron beam is positioned at or near a grain boundary, the diffraction volume contains the crystal lattices from the two grains separated by the boundary. Thus, the resulting pattern will contain contributions from both lattices. Such mixed patterns can pose some challenge to the EBSD pattern band detection and indexing algorithms. Through analysis of experimental local misorientation data and simulated pattern mixing, this work shows that some of the rise in local misorientation is an artifact due to the mixed patterns at the boundary but that the rise due to physical phenomena is also observed.

A review of strain analysis using electron backscatter diffraction.

Since the automation of the electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) technique, EBSD systems have become commonplace in microscopy facilities within materials science and geology research laboratories around the world. The acceptance of the technique is primarily due to the capability of EBSD to aid the research scientist in understanding the crystallographic aspects of microstructure. There has been considerable interest in using EBSD to quantify strain at the submicron scale. To apply EBSD to the characterization of strain, it is important to understand what is practically possible and the underlying assumptions and limitations. This work reviews the current state of technology in terms of strain analysis using EBSD. First, the effects of both elastic and plastic strain on individual EBSD patterns will be considered. Second, the use of EBSD maps for characterizing plastic strain will be explored. Both the potential of the technique and its limitations will be discussed along with the sensitivity of various calculation and mapping parameters.

NLPAR: Non-local smoothing for enhanced EBSD pattern indexing.

Due to continued advances in phosphor sensitivity and camera technology, electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) within a scanning electron microscope (SEM) has become an increasingly popular method for determining crystal orientations within a given microstructure. Concurrent advances in computational processing have also made it possible to store each individual diffraction pattern as it is collected, which has allowed more complex algorithms to be deployed for post-processing and indexing patterns. This paper proposes a new post-processing technique for pattern enhancement that aids in re-indexing by leveraging a non-local smoothing kernel whose weights are based on the exponential decay of the Euclidean distance between patterns. The advantage of this approach is its ability to utilize very large smoothing kernels without losing integrity near interface boundaries and while still operating on timescales comparable to traditional indexing approaches. Using an Inconel 600 nickel alloy sample, the capabilities and performance of the proposed approach are compared to other indexing schemes, including neighbor pattern averaging with re-indexing (NPAR) and a dictionary-based approach. The results demonstrate that the proposed method consistently produces a higher index success rate (ISR) than NPAR and comparable ISRs to the dictionary-based approach, a method with orders-of-magnitude greater computational demands. Source code for the NLPAR algorithm is available at https://github.com/USNavalResearchLaboratory/NLPAR.

Improved twin detection via tracking of individual Kikuchi band intensity of EBSD patterns.

Twin detection via EBSD can be particularly challenging due to the fine scale of certain twin types - for example, compression and double twins in Mg. Even when a grid of sufficient resolution is chosen to ensure scan points within the twins, the interaction volume of the electron beam often encapsulates a region that contains both the parent grain and the twin, confusing the twin identification process. The degradation of the EBSD pattern results in a lower image quality metric, which has long been used to imply potential twins. However, not all bands within the pattern are degraded equally. This paper exploits the fact that parent and twin lattices share common planes that lead to the quality of the associated bands not degrading; i.e. common planes that exist in both grains lead to bands of consistent intensity for scan points adjacent to twin boundaries. Hence, twin boundaries in a microstructure can be recognized, even when they are associated with thin twins. Proof of concept was performed on known twins in Inconel 600, Tantalum, and Magnesium AZ31. This method was then used to search for undetected twins in a Mg AZ31 structure, revealing nearly double the number of twins compared with those initially detected by standard procedures.

Orientation effects on indexing of electron backscatter diffraction patterns.

Automated Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD) has become a well-accepted technique for characterizing the crystallographic orientation aspects of polycrystalline microstructures. At the advent of this technique, it was observed that patterns obtained from grains in certain crystallographic orientations were more difficult for the automated indexing algorithms to accurately identify than patterns from other orientations. The origin of this problem is often similarities between the EBSD pattern of the correct orientation and patterns from other orientations or phases. While practical solutions have been found and implemented, the identification of these problem orientations generally occurs only after running an automated scan, as problem orientations are often readily apparent in the resulting orientation maps. However, such an approach only finds those problem orientations that are present in the scan area. It would be advantageous to identify all regions of orientation space that may present problems for automated indexing prior to initiating an automated scan, and to minimize this space through the optimization of acquisition and indexing parameters. This work presents new methods for identifying regions in orientation space where the reliability of the automated indexing is suspect prior to performing a scan. This methodology is used to characterize the impact of various parameters on the indexing algorithm.

Electron imaging with an EBSD detector.

Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD) has proven to be a useful tool for characterizing the crystallographic orientation aspects of microstructures at length scales ranging from tens of nanometers to millimeters in the scanning electron microscope (SEM). With the advent of high-speed digital cameras for EBSD use, it has become practical to use the EBSD detector as an imaging device similar to a backscatter (or forward-scatter) detector. Using the EBSD detector in this manner enables images exhibiting topographic, atomic density and orientation contrast to be obtained at rates similar to slow scanning in the conventional SEM manner. The high-speed acquisition is achieved through extreme binning of the camera-enough to result in a 5 × 5 pixel pattern. At such high binning, the captured patterns are not suitable for indexing. However, no indexing is required for using the detector as an imaging device. Rather, a 5 × 5 array of images is formed by essentially using each pixel in the 5 × 5 pixel pattern as an individual scattered electron detector. The images can also be formed at traditional EBSD scanning rates by recording the image data during a scan or can also be formed through post-processing of patterns recorded at each point in the scan. Such images lend themselves to correlative analysis of image data with the usual orientation data provided by and with chemical data obtained simultaneously via X-Ray Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (XEDS).

Introduction and comparison of new EBSD post-processing methodologies.

Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD) provides a useful means for characterizing microstructure. However, it can be difficult to obtain index-able diffraction patterns from some samples. This can lead to noisy maps reconstructed from the scan data. Various post-processing methodologies have been developed to improve the scan data generally based on correlating non-indexed or mis-indexed points with the orientations obtained at neighboring points in the scan grid. Two new approaches are introduced (1) a re-scanning approach using local pattern averaging and (2) using the multiple solutions obtained by the triplet indexing method. These methodologies are applied to samples with noise introduced into the patterns artificially and by the operational settings of the EBSD camera. They are also applied to a heavily deformed and a fine-grained sample. In all cases, both techniques provide an improvement in the resulting scan data, the local pattern averaging providing the most improvement of the two. However, the local pattern averaging is most helpful when the noise in the patterns is due to the camera operating conditions as opposed to inherent challenges in the sample itself. A byproduct of this study was insight into the validity of various indexing success rate metrics. A metric based given by the fraction of points with CI values greater than some tolerance value (0.1 in this case) was confirmed to provide an accurate assessment of the indexing success rate.

EBSD image quality mapping.

Image quality (IQ) maps constructed from electron backscatter diffraction data provide useful visualizations of microstructure. The contrast in these maps arises from a variety of sources, including phase, strain, topography, and grain boundaries. IQ maps constructed using various IQ metrics are compared to identify the most prominent contrast mechanism for each metric. The conventional IQ metric was found to provide the superior grain boundary and strain contrast, whereas an IQ metric based on the average overall intensity of the diffraction patterns was found to provide better topological and phase contrast.