The effect of different step-size on the visualization of crystallographic defects using SEM/EBSD technique

Crystallographic grains and defects play an important role in many fundamental processes, such as grain growth and recrystallization, damage, and plastic deformation. Due to the importance of these processes, there is considerable interest in characterizing the crystallographic orientation and grain boundary distribution of crystalline materials. In this study, crystallographic defects such as dislocation arrays and grain boundaries and their orientations were investigated in a commercial polycrystalline copper sample using electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) mapping combined with scanning electron microscopy (SEM). EBSD was used to determine the local orientations at individual points of a regular grid on a planar surface of a specimen. From the orientation differences between neighboring points, the lattice curvature and dislocation density tensor were derived, and the dislocation density distribution accompanying the crystallographic defects was significantly dependent on the SEM/EBSD step size associated with the spatial resolution.