EBSD 2011

Scientific Organiser: Stefan Zaefferer

The electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) technique applied in the scanning electron microscope (SEM) has become one of the most powerful techniques for the characterization of microstructures of crystalline materials. In two decades it has developed from a simple laboratory setup, into a fast, reliable and fully automated technique, commercially available from an increasing number of vendors. With that it has become a standardized basis of orientation microscopy, allowing for a comprehensive numerical description of microstructures from the 50 nm range all the way up to the macroscopic millimetre or even centimetre range.

Besides this established use the EBSD technique is developing into new fields of materials characterization which were former domains of transmission electron microscopy on the one side and x-ray diffraction (XRD) on the other. On the TEM-scale side it is, for example, the EBSD-supported electron channeling technique which allows characterization of individual defects like dislocations or stacking faults. On the XRD side the improved angular resolution of EBSD gives, for example, access to local residual stresses. New technical developments make accurate large-scale texture measurements possible.

A unique feature of EBSD has emerged from maturing into the 3^rd-spatial or temporal dimension. Increasing the dimensionality of a data set simply explodes its scientific value in many cases, in particular when combined with physical modeling approaches. An increasing amount of data processing tools and better understanding of the pattern formation processes allow extraction and analysis of dislocation densities, grain boundary structures, advanced phase characterization etc.

^{*Image by Lin Sun}

photos of the 2011 Meeting

Invited Speakers

Nobuhiro Tsuji Kyoto University - Rainer Abart University of Wien - Ben Britton University of Oxford - Enrico Langer TU Dresden - John Wheeler University of Liverpool - Philip Eisenlohr Max Planck-Institute for Iron Research

Exhibitors and sponsors