A review of EBSD: From rudimentary on line orientation measurements to high resolution elastic strain measurements over the past 30 years.

Abstract

Considering that the Electron Back Scatter Diffraction technique, EBSD, features in more than 60% of the papers published in the current conference proceedings, this review concentrates on the most recent development in the last ten years, that is, High Resolution EBSD. An outline of the theory is presented and four-point bend test results are shown proving the sensitivity of the technique for measuring elastic strain is 1 part in 10000. Other examples of its use included here are strains surrounding indents in silicon, mapping the stress concentration at grain boundaries ahead of dislocation pile ups and dislocation generation at grain boundaries due to strain ahead of nano indentations. An application is presented to distinguish the c axis direction in slightly tetragonal PZT crystals and developments in obtaining absolute strain measurement as opposed to the relative strain measurement currently the norm are discussed.