Conclusion

Over the past two decades, automated Kikuchi diffraction in transmission (TKD in TEM and SEM) and backscatter mode (known as EBSD in SEM) has gradually evolved into a valuable tool for materials characterization. Kikuchi diffraction provides, on a submicrometric scale, a detailed quantitative description of grain orientations, material phases, deformation state, local texture, intuitive visualizations of microstructure in the form of orientation maps and dynamic experiments. Recently, there has been renewed interest in TKD, particularly as a complementary device to an EBSD system enabling nanoscale resolution. Transmission studies require time consuming and destructive film preparation. The user must bear in mind that, in this case, a small area examined may not be representative, and statistically unreliable results will be obtained. In fact, EBSD has largely supplanted orientation mapping...