title: The effect of pattern overlap on the accuracy of high resolution electron backscatter diffraction measurements.
abstract: High resolution, cross-correlation-based, electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) measures the variation of elastic strains and lattice rotations from a reference state. Regions near grain boundaries are often of interest but overlap of patterns from the two grains could reduce accuracy of the cross-correlation analysis. To explore this concern, patterns from the interior of two grains have been mixed to simulate the interaction volume crossing a grain boundary so that the effect on the accuracy of the cross correlation results can be tested. It was found that the accuracy of HR-EBSD strain measurements performed in a FEG-SEM on zirconium remains good until the incident beam is less than 18 nm from a grain boundary. A simulated microstructure was used to measure how often pattern overlap occurs at any given EBSD step size, and a simple relation was found linking the probability of overlap with step size.
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials, Imperial College London, Prince Consort Road, London SW7 2AZ, UK. Electronic address: v.tong13@imperial.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Vivian
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Tong
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials, Imperial College London, Prince Consort Road, London SW7 2AZ, UK.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PH, UK.
authors.forename: Angus J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Wilkinson
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials, Imperial College London, Prince Consort Road, London SW7 2AZ, UK.
authors.forename: T Ben
authors.initials: TB
authors.lastname: Britton
keywords: Cross-correlation; Grain boundary; High-resolution EBSD; Pattern overlap