The Study of Microstructure on a Mesoscale by ACOM

The benefits of analytical electron microscopy are the correlation of morphology, elemental composition and crystal structure on a submicron scale. Automated crystal orientation measurement (ACOM) in the SEM enables, by digital beam scan, the convenient and fast acquisition of orientation data in selected bulk surface areas grain by grain. Grain boundaries exceeding some tenth of a degree of misorientation are reliably identified. The quality of backscatter Kikuchi patterns is a (semi-) quantitative measure of local plastic deformation. The database can be used for crystal orientation mapping (COM), quantitative texture analysis (ODF, pole figures, MODF), characterization of grain and phase boundaries, and orientation stereology in general from macroscopic areas down to mesoscale.