EBSD-assisted Laue microdiffraction for microstrain analysis

Abstract

The X-ray Laue microdiffraction (mLaue) technique has been establishing itself as a reliable means for microstrain analysis for the past few decades. One problem with this technique is that when the crystal size is significantly smaller than the probed volume and when the diffracting crystals are closely oriented, a large number of individual mLaue patterns are superimposed in a complex way on the recorded diffraction images. In that case, because of the difficulty of isolating unambiguously a single-grain mLaue pattern, a reliable analysis of strains is tedious manually and hardly achievable with current automated methods. This issue is even more severe for low-symmetry crystals or when highenergy X-rays are used, since each single-crystal mLaue pattern already contains a large number of spots. This paper proposes overcoming this challenge through the development of a combined approach coupling mLaue and electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD). The capabilities of this 'EBSD-assisted mLaue' automated method are illustrated on a monoclinic zirconia-based specimen and mLaue diffraction patterns are analysed with the crystal orientation input from EBSD. The obtained results are statistically reliable, reproducible and provide a physical insight into the micromechanical characteristics of the material.