Texture and microstructure imaging in six dimensions with high-energy synchrotron radiation

J. Appl. Cryst. (2003). 36, 1240–1255

Projections (in sheet normal direction x) of grains of a recrystallized nickel sheet with cube texture. The technique visualizes only those grains that have either a [200] or a [111] direction (nearly) parallel to the rolling direction z of the sheet. Other groups of grains cann be elected as well, by using other lattice planes and/or irradiating the sample in other orientations.

Texture and microstructure of a polycrystalline material are characterized by specifying the positions and orientations of all crystallites in the six-dimensional orientation-location space {φ₁Φφ₂xyz}. Two-dimensional sections and projections of this space can be imaged by the diffraction of hard synchrotron X-rays (~0.1 Å) using a 'moving-area-detector' technique combined with either a diffraction-angle or a diffraction-plane slit. Since the X-ray beam 'sweeps' continuously over the sample coordinates, the extremely high orientation- and location-resolving power of synchrotron radiation can thus be fully exploited. The technique can be used to measure the 'field' of local textures, or the 'orientation stereology' of the individual grains, in the bulk of even big samples, with penetration depths comparable to those of neutrons.