ABSTRACT
Centre for Materials Characterization and Testing, International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials (ARCI), Balapur P.O., Hyderabad 500005, Telangana, India
*E-mail: ravi.gundakaram@arci.res.in
ABSTRACT
In the synthesis and study of materials, microstructure is an important factor. Control of the microstructure is very essential in industrial processes for reproducibility in components. In addition, it is now recognized that by suitable microstructural tuning, many properties can indeed be enhanced. Among the experimental techniques available for the study of microstructure, electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) is both a suitable and a powerful tool. The technique conveniently probes the lengthscales between those studied by optical microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. This chapter provides an introduction to EBSD and discusses experimental details on obtaining and analyzing EBSD patterns. Traditionally, EBSD has been used to study the crystallographic orientation of each grain in a metal or an alloy but in recent years, it has also been used for microstructural studies of ceramic materials. By suitable examples, the development of the technique is illustrated in this chapter, and applications such as the determination of grain boundary character distribution and microtexture are described. In conjunction with energy dispersive spectroscopy, EBSD can be used to analyze the phases present in a material and also for the study of new phases. Finally, EBSD in the transmission mode is touched upon. The chapter ends with an outlook for the future of the technique.
