Transmission Electron Microscopy

Chapter 6

Kikuchi Diffraction

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 The Origin of Kikuchi Lines

• In the case of Kikuchi patterns, the specimen has to be thick enough

for the inelastic scattering to occur.

• If the specimen is thick enough, it will generate a large number of

scattered electrons which travel in all directions. These electrons can
be Bragg diffracted by the crystal planes.

• The ideal specimen

Kikuchi Lines
thickness will be such
that we can see both
spot pattern and the
Kikuchi lines.

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 The Effect of Specimen Thickness

Thin Appropriate Too Thick

Thickness

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 The Origin of Kikuchi Lines
• Kikuchi patterns, resulting from the
incoherently scattered and
divergent beams of electrons, show
paired arrays of lines in SADPs.

• The incident electrons are scattered

in all directions (mainly in forward
directions).

• Some of the electrons travel at an

angle to the hkl planes.

• Due to the difference in scattering

angle of the scattered electrons,
the Kikuchi pattern of hkl plane
always exhibits in a pair of the
bright (excess) line and dark
(deficient) line.
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 The Origin of Kikuchi Lines
• Because the scattered electrons are
traveling in all directions, the
diffracted beam will lie on one of
two cones. The cones are
called Kossel cones .
• Two cones from hkl plane intersect
the Ewald sphere and appear as forward
backward
two parallel lines in the DP.
• One line ( Kikuchi line)
corresponds to and another (
Kikuchi line) to .

• The Kikuchi lines are always in a g >

pair and separated by 2 . The
line between the two Kikuchi lines
represents the trace of hkl plane.
cone & Ewaldsphere 交界 Kikuchiline
( 次 2個 )

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一
 The Origin of Kikuchi Lines

• The distance in reciprocal space

between the g and g Kikuchi lines
is g , because the angle between
the two Kossel cones is 2 .
• When the g Kikuchi line passes
through the reflection G, sg = 0 and
the g Kikuchi line passes through O.
g
• We can use Kikuchi lines to
determine the exact value of sg
when we are close to an exact
Bragg condition.
• If the direct beam is exactly parallel to the hkl plane, the g and g Kikuchi
lines are symmetrically displaced about O with the g Kikuchi line
‘passing through’ g/2 and the g line ‘passing through’ g/2.

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 Kikuchi Maps

• The Kikuchi map will help you to

immediately identify the
orientation of your specimen on
the TEM screen.
• To construct a Kikuchi pattern, build
the DP and then draw pairs of lines
each bisecting the g-vectors.
• When the [001] fcc pole is on axis,
the vector g020 is bisected by the
vertical line at H (020); the other
Kikuchi line in the pair is at –H
(020).
• Keeping the common 020 g-vector,
we can construct the map for [101]
pole.
FCC
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 Kikuchi Maps

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A

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 Kikuchi Maps

Kikuchi Map of MgO

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 Kikuchi Maps

Kikuchi Map of Si

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 The Determination of Crystal Orientation

• We can determine the orientation

of the crystal along the beam
(point O).

• The indices of the planes can be

derived by the simple relation,
= 2 , , = 2 , , = 2 ,

• Then, we can check the result by

measuring the angles, , , and .

• We can derive the poles by cross

product of any two planes.

= = ×
= = ×
= = ×

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 The Determination of Crystal Orientation

• We measure the distances OA,

OB and OC, we can convert them
into angles 1 , 2 and 3 by
using our calibrated camera
length.

• Define the index of O as [uvw],

[uvw] is determined by solving
the following equations,
+ +
cos 1 =
+ + + +

+ +
cos 2 =
+ + + +

+ +
cos 3 =
+ + + +
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 Finding the Zone Axis

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 The Determination of s

• The magnitude and the sign of the excitation error can be realized by
the positions of Kikuchi lines to the diffraction spots.

s<0 s=0 s>0

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As S=0, the
transmitted and Dark Bright
diffracted beams
are located at
deficient and
excess lines

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In general, S>0, the reciprocal lattices are located in the Ewald sphere;
S<0, the reciprocal lattices are outside the Ewald sphere.

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 Dark Bright

As S>0, the reciprocal

spots are located inside
the Ewald sphere.
Diffracted beams are
located inside the Excess
line.
Dark Bright

The reciprocal spots are

located outside the Ewald
sphere.
Diffracted beams are
located inside the Excess
line.
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 X
R

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 The Determination of s

• The angle is expressed as

= =

The distance x and R are measured on the DP.

• The angle is expressed as

• Setting = ,

= = = = = =

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 <
Brightfield > < centraldraktield )

beamdirection
beamdirection

m 时
T D T D
-

D
↓
轉 beamdirection 讓 diffractonpoint
optical axis
opticalaxis 上 better contrast
在

原在g 上的右移到 T 的位置

在 T 上的右移到g 的位置
二
臣
Location of dislocation image related to dislocation core

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Weak-beam (WB or WBDF) image formation

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 Applications of Kikuchi Patterns

• Precise determination of crystal orientation [uvw] .

• Adjusting diffraction condition (s)

• Tilting guidance (between poles)

• Intergranular and interphase angles

• Determination of camera constant (L) and wavelength

( ) separately.

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 Any Questions?

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