Quantitative characterization of the orientation spread within individual grains in copper after tensile deformation

By means of electron backscatter diffraction, orientations are determined on a regular grid on a polished section of a copper specimen after tensile deformation to 25 %. Individual grains separated by boundaries with disorientation angles above 7 are identified and the microtexture in the form of the orientation distribution function of each individual grain is analyzed. Extent and shape of the disorientation distribution in orientation space are quantified by the tensor of the second-order central moments, its principal values and directions. The latter characterize the main rotation axes of the orientation spread and the former the extent of the distribution in orientation space along these principal axes allowing a classification of the disorientation distribution into archetypical shapes. The disorientation distributions developed in grains with tensile axes close to [001] or [011] are more anisotropic than expected from their eight possibly activated slip systems indicating a mutual suppression of possibly activated slip systems.