RESUMO
A wide variety of specimen preparation techniques are available for ensuring that specimen surface finish has the acceptable quality for electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) analysis. These techniques include but are not limited to vibratory polishing, broad, and focused ion beam milling. They have been widely implemented in the field of nuclear materials science with a varying degree of success. However, a systematic investigation of the effectiveness of each technique for preparation of highly radioactive specimens has not been conducted to date but would be beneficial during selection of the specimen preparation methodology. Multiple preparation techniques have been evaluated in this contribution with the final goal of determining the most effective technique for preparing radioactive specimens for EBSD analysis. This paper discusses the advantages and disadvantages of each technique and recommends best practices for preparing radioactive specimens for surface-based analysis techniques.
RESUMO
A novel sample mount design with integrated fiducial marks and software for assisting operators in easily and efficiently locating points of interest established in previous analytical sessions is described. The sample holder and software were evaluated with experiments to demonstrate the utility and ease of finding the same points of interest in two different microscopy instruments. Also, numerical analysis of expected errors in determining the same position with errors unbiased by a human operator was performed. Based on the results, issues related to acquiring reproducibility and best practices for using the sample mount and software were identified. Overall, the sample mount methodology allows data to be efficiently and easily collected on different instruments for the same sample location.
