The effect of pattern overlap on the accuracy of high resolution electron backscatter diffraction measurements.

Journal article

High resolution, cross-correlation-based, electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) measures the variation of elastic strains and lattice rotations from a reference state. Regions near grain boundaries are often of interest but overlap of patterns from the two grains could reduce accuracy of the cross-correlation analysis. To explore this concern, patterns from the interior of two grains have been mixed to simulate the interaction volume crossing a grain boundary so that the effect on the accuracy of the cross correlation results can be tested. It was found that the accuracy of HR-EBSD strain measurements performed in a FEG-SEM on zirconium remains good until the incident beam is less than 18nm from a grain boundary. A simulated microstructure was used to measure how often pattern overlap occurs at any given EBSD step size, and a simple relation was found linking the probability of overlap with step size.

Authors: Tong, V; Jiang, J; Wilkinson, A; Britton, T

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Journal: Ultramicroscopy
• Volume: 155
• Pages: 62-73
• Publication date: 2015-08-01
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ultramic.2015.04.019
• EISSN: 1879-2723
• ISSN: 0304-3991
• Language: English
• Keywords: Pattern overlap; Cross-correlation; High-resolution EBSD; Grain boundary