Reconstructed and analyzed X-ray computed tomography data of investment-cast and additive-manufactured aluminum foam for visualizing ligament failure mechanisms and regions of contact during a compression test.

Three stochastic open-cell aluminum foam samples were incrementally compressed and imaged using X-ray Computed Tomography (CT). One of the samples was created using conventional investment casting methods and the other two were replicas of the same foam that were made using laser powder bed fusion. The reconstructed CT data were then examined in Paraview to identify and highlight the types of failure of individual ligaments. The accompanying sets of Paraview state files and STL files highlight the different ligament failure modes incrementally during compression for each foam. Ligament failure was classified as either "Fracture" (red) or "Collapse" (blue). Also, regions of neighboring ligaments that came into contact that were not originally touching were colored yellow. For further interpretation and discussion of the data, please refer to Matheson et al. (2017) [1].

Introduction and comparison of new EBSD post-processing methodologies.

Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD) provides a useful means for characterizing microstructure. However, it can be difficult to obtain index-able diffraction patterns from some samples. This can lead to noisy maps reconstructed from the scan data. Various post-processing methodologies have been developed to improve the scan data generally based on correlating non-indexed or mis-indexed points with the orientations obtained at neighboring points in the scan grid. Two new approaches are introduced (1) a re-scanning approach using local pattern averaging and (2) using the multiple solutions obtained by the triplet indexing method. These methodologies are applied to samples with noise introduced into the patterns artificially and by the operational settings of the EBSD camera. They are also applied to a heavily deformed and a fine-grained sample. In all cases, both techniques provide an improvement in the resulting scan data, the local pattern averaging providing the most improvement of the two. However, the local pattern averaging is most helpful when the noise in the patterns is due to the camera operating conditions as opposed to inherent challenges in the sample itself. A byproduct of this study was insight into the validity of various indexing success rate metrics. A metric based given by the fraction of points with CI values greater than some tolerance value (0.1 in this case) was confirmed to provide an accurate assessment of the indexing success rate.

Characterization of Sputtered CdTe Thin Films with Electron Backscatter Diffraction and Correlation with Device Performance.

The performance of polycrystalline CdTe photovoltaic thin films is expected to depend on the grain boundary density and corresponding grain size of the film microstructure. However, the electrical performance of grain boundaries within these films is not well understood, and can be beneficial, harmful, or neutral in terms of film performance. Electron backscatter diffraction has been used to characterize the grain size, grain boundary structure, and crystallographic texture of sputtered CdTe at varying deposition pressures before and after CdCl2 treatment in order to correlate performance with microstructure. Weak fiber textures were observed in the as-deposited films, with (111) textures present at lower deposition pressures and (110) textures observed at higher deposition pressures. The CdCl2-treated samples exhibited significant grain recrystallization with a high fraction of twin boundaries. Good correlation of solar cell efficiency was observed with twin-corrected grain size while poor correlation was found if the twin boundaries were considered as grain boundaries in the grain size determination. This implies that the twin boundaries are neutral with respect to recombination and carrier transport.

Electron imaging with an EBSD detector.

Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD) has proven to be a useful tool for characterizing the crystallographic orientation aspects of microstructures at length scales ranging from tens of nanometers to millimeters in the scanning electron microscope (SEM). With the advent of high-speed digital cameras for EBSD use, it has become practical to use the EBSD detector as an imaging device similar to a backscatter (or forward-scatter) detector. Using the EBSD detector in this manner enables images exhibiting topographic, atomic density and orientation contrast to be obtained at rates similar to slow scanning in the conventional SEM manner. The high-speed acquisition is achieved through extreme binning of the camera-enough to result in a 5 × 5 pixel pattern. At such high binning, the captured patterns are not suitable for indexing. However, no indexing is required for using the detector as an imaging device. Rather, a 5 × 5 array of images is formed by essentially using each pixel in the 5 × 5 pixel pattern as an individual scattered electron detector. The images can also be formed at traditional EBSD scanning rates by recording the image data during a scan or can also be formed through post-processing of patterns recorded at each point in the scan. Such images lend themselves to correlative analysis of image data with the usual orientation data provided by and with chemical data obtained simultaneously via X-Ray Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (XEDS).

Orientation precision of electron backscatter diffraction measurements near grain boundaries.

Electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) has become a common technique for measuring crystallographic orientations at spatial resolutions on the order of tens of nanometers and at angular resolutions <0.1°. In a recent search of EBSD papers using Google Scholar™, 60% were found to address some aspect of deformation. Generally, deformation manifests itself in EBSD measurements by small local misorientations. An increase in the local misorientation is often observed near grain boundaries in deformed microstructures. This may be indicative of dislocation pile-up at the boundaries but could also be due to a loss of orientation precision in the EBSD measurements. When the electron beam is positioned at or near a grain boundary, the diffraction volume contains the crystal lattices from the two grains separated by the boundary. Thus, the resulting pattern will contain contributions from both lattices. Such mixed patterns can pose some challenge to the EBSD pattern band detection and indexing algorithms. Through analysis of experimental local misorientation data and simulated pattern mixing, this work shows that some of the rise in local misorientation is an artifact due to the mixed patterns at the boundary but that the rise due to physical phenomena is also observed.

A review of strain analysis using electron backscatter diffraction.

Since the automation of the electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) technique, EBSD systems have become commonplace in microscopy facilities within materials science and geology research laboratories around the world. The acceptance of the technique is primarily due to the capability of EBSD to aid the research scientist in understanding the crystallographic aspects of microstructure. There has been considerable interest in using EBSD to quantify strain at the submicron scale. To apply EBSD to the characterization of strain, it is important to understand what is practically possible and the underlying assumptions and limitations. This work reviews the current state of technology in terms of strain analysis using EBSD. First, the effects of both elastic and plastic strain on individual EBSD patterns will be considered. Second, the use of EBSD maps for characterizing plastic strain will be explored. Both the potential of the technique and its limitations will be discussed along with the sensitivity of various calculation and mapping parameters.

EBSD image quality mapping.

Image quality (IQ) maps constructed from electron backscatter diffraction data provide useful visualizations of microstructure. The contrast in these maps arises from a variety of sources, including phase, strain, topography, and grain boundaries. IQ maps constructed using various IQ metrics are compared to identify the most prominent contrast mechanism for each metric. The conventional IQ metric was found to provide the superior grain boundary and strain contrast, whereas an IQ metric based on the average overall intensity of the diffraction patterns was found to provide better topological and phase contrast.

Orientation effects on indexing of electron backscatter diffraction patterns.

Automated Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD) has become a well-accepted technique for characterizing the crystallographic orientation aspects of polycrystalline microstructures. At the advent of this technique, it was observed that patterns obtained from grains in certain crystallographic orientations were more difficult for the automated indexing algorithms to accurately identify than patterns from other orientations. The origin of this problem is often similarities between the EBSD pattern of the correct orientation and patterns from other orientations or phases. While practical solutions have been found and implemented, the identification of these problem orientations generally occurs only after running an automated scan, as problem orientations are often readily apparent in the resulting orientation maps. However, such an approach only finds those problem orientations that are present in the scan area. It would be advantageous to identify all regions of orientation space that may present problems for automated indexing prior to initiating an automated scan, and to minimize this space through the optimization of acquisition and indexing parameters. This work presents new methods for identifying regions in orientation space where the reliability of the automated indexing is suspect prior to performing a scan. This methodology is used to characterize the impact of various parameters on the indexing algorithm.