ABSTRACT
The SEM is a powerful instrument for acquiring microtexture data and characterismg the local crystallography of materials (Wilkinson and Hirsch. 1997). Electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) is the technique which is becoming almost universally used to obtain such data, and so most of this Chapter is devoted to a description of the principles and practice of EBSD. Although EBSD (which is also known as Backscatter Kikuchi Diffraction, BKD, or Electron Back-Scatter Patterns, EBSP) is mainly associated with microtexture measurement, it can also be used to assist in phase identification via the symmetry elements in the diffraction pattern (Dingley et al., 1995; Michael, 1997) and to assess lattice strain (Sections 6.4 and 10.4.5).
