Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD)

What is EBSD ?
Why use EBSD ?
Why measure microstructure ?
What does EBSD do that cannot already be done ?

Electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) is a technique to determine crystalline

materials properties in electron microscopy (both SEM and TEM, but mainly
used in the SEM system).

With special detector, an SEM system can record EBSD patterns of a crystalline solid, which
are essentially the backscatter Kikuchi patterns.

With the EBSD patterns, we can determine crystalline orientations of individual grains
of a polycrystalline specimen and identify separate crystalline phases in a multiphase
specimen.

The EBSD technique is increasingly used for examining metallic and ceramic materials,
particularly for metals.
EBSD Pattern Formation

EBSD requires incident electrons inelastically scatter in a specimen.

When the primary electron beam of SEM focused on a location of a specimen, the electrons
scatter from to all directions in a crystalline solid.

One electron beam with the scattering angle (θ) from the scatter location to a certain
crystallographic plane that satisfies the constructive diffraction condition, Bragg’s law

The intersections between

the cone surfaces and a
detector screen generate
two parallel lines (Kikushi
band) indicates plane of
diffraction

Fig. (a, b) Schematic illustration of EBSD formation principles. Scattering of electrons from S
near the surface of the specimen generates a Kikushi band of crystallographic
plane with spacing dhkl
By indexing all the bands in an EBSD pattern, we are able to determine the
structure of a crystal and its orientation respect to the plane of detection screen.

Figure Schematic illustration of instrumental arrangement of incident electron beam,

specimen, phosphor screen, and recording CCD camera for EBSD patterns in SEM.

Specimen surfaces should be flat with a surface polish similar to that for metallographic
specimens for light microscopy. Also, the surface with tens of nanometer thickness should
be free from residual stress and strain that may be
generated during its preparation process.
Applications of EBSD
-determination of grain orientations and identification of phases in crystalline materials.

-analyzing texture structures of metals resulting from processing such as solidification, plastic
deformation, and heat treatment.

-By stepwise scanning computer software can graphically represent the orientation differences
among grain with colors or gray levels. Commonly higher contrast between
grains means a greater difference in grain angle.