Characterization of Anomalous Grains in FeCo Magnetic Alloys.

Heat-treated FeCo-based magnetic alloys were characterized using a suite of electron microscopy techniques to gain insight into their structural properties. Electron channeling contrast imaging (ECCI) in the scanning electron microscope (SEM) found unique grains towards the outer edge of a FeCo sample with nonuniform background contrast. High-magnification ECCI imaging of these nonuniform grains revealed a weblike network of defects that were not observed in standard uniform background contrast grains. High-resolution electron backscattered diffraction (HR-EBSD) confirmed these defect structures to be dislocation networks and additionally found subgrain boundaries within the nonuniform contrast grains. The defect content within these grains suggests that they are unrecrystallized grains, and ECCI can be used as a rapid method to quantify unrecrystallized grains. To demonstrate the insight that can be garnered via ECCI on these unique grains, the sample was imaged before and after micro indentation. This experiment showed that slip bands propagate throughout the material until interacting with the dislocation networks, suggesting that these specific defects provide a barrier to plastic deformation. Taken together, these results show how ECCI can be used to better understand failure mechanisms in alloys and provides further evidence that dislocation networks play a critical role in the brittle failure of FeCo alloys.

Identification of Star Defects in Gallium Nitride with HREBSD and ECCI.

This paper characterizes novel "star" defects in GaN films grown with metal­organic vapor phase deposition (MOVPE) on GaN substrates with electron channeling contrast imaging (ECCI) and high-resolution electron backscatter diffraction (HREBSD). These defects are hundreds of microns in size and tend to aggregate threading dislocations at their centers. They are the intersection of six nearly ideal low-angle tilt boundaries composed of $\langle a\rangle$-type pyramidal edge dislocations, each on a unique slip system.

Comparison of dislocation characterization by electron channeling contrast imaging and cross-correlation electron backscattered diffraction.

In this work, the relative capabilities and limitations of electron channeling contrast imaging (ECCI) and cross-correlation electron backscattered diffraction (CC-EBSD) have been assessed by studying the dislocation distributions resulting from nanoindentation in body centered cubic Ta. Qualitative comparison reveals very similar dislocation distributions between the CC-EBSD mapped GNDs and the ECC imaged dislocations. Approximate dislocation densities determined from ECC images compare well to those determined by CC-EBSD. Nevertheless, close examination reveals subtle differences in the details of the distributions mapped by these two approaches. The details of the dislocation Burgers vectors and line directions determined by ECCI have been compared to those determined using CC-EBSD and reveal good agreement.

Selectively Electron-Transparent Microstamping Toward Concurrent Digital Image Correlation and High-Angular Resolution Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD) Analysis.

Digital image correlation (DIC) in a scanning electron microscope and high-angular resolution electron backscatter diffraction (HREBSD) provide valuable and complementary data concerning local deformation at the microscale. However, standard surface preparation techniques are mutually exclusive, which makes combining these techniques in situ impossible. This paper introduces a new method of applying surface patterning for DIC, namely a urethane microstamp, that provides a pattern with enough contrast for DIC at low accelerating voltages, but is virtually transparent at the higher voltages necessary for HREBSD and conventional EBSD analysis. Furthermore, microstamping is inexpensive and repeatable, and is more suitable to the analysis of patterns from complex surface geometries and larger surface areas than other patterning techniques.