Combination of electron channeling (ECCI) with EBSD: Quantitative characterization of deformation structures in the SEM

The coupling of electron channeling contrast imaging (ECCI) with EBSD provides an efficient and fast approach to perform ECCI of crystal defects, such as dislocations, cells, and stacking faults, under controlled diffraction conditions with enhanced contrast. From a technical point of view, the ECCI technique complements two of the main electron microscopy techniques, namely, EBSD and TEM.

In this review, we provide several application examples of the EBSD-based ECCI approach on microstructure characterization, namely, characterization of single dislocations, measurement of dislocation densities and characterization of dislocation substructures in deformed bulk materials. We make use of a two-beam Bloch wave approach to interpret the channeling contrast associated to crystal defects. The approach captures the main features observed in the experimental contrast associated to stacking faults and dislocations.