EBSD is used widely in industrial scientific research in applications concerned with:
- Texture measurement in sheet materials in the steel and aluminium industry for quality control applications.
- Study of texture in sheet steel and aluminium for improved formability and surface finish.
- Study of texture in relation to electrical and magnetic properties.
- Influence of grain boundary properties on corrosion, fracture and fatigue in metal manufacturing and nuclear power industries.
- Retained ferrite and austenite measurement for steel property enhancement.
- Through thickness texture measurements of sputter targets for quality control applications.
- Analysis and orientation measurement of second phase particles for materials property enhancement and component lifetime prediction.
- Baseline measurement of grain sizes in microelectronic interconnects.
- Development of thin film devices.
- As a complementary technique to qualify and improve traditional techniques such as optical microscopy and X-ray diffraction.
- Microscopic studies of texture (preferred orientation measurements) and the relation of microtexture to microstructure.
- As a complementary technique to X-ray diffraction for the study of texture on a macroscopic scale.
- Studying recrystallisation in metals and alloys.
- Study of microstructure, in particular the capability of crystal orientation maps to reveal unambiguously the presence, location and size of grains.
- Measurement of grain boundary misorientations and the relation of grain boundary types to phenomena such as segregation, corrosion, precipitation, fatigue and fracture resistance.
- Distribution of grain boundary misorientations, twin boundaries and other special boundaries including their effect of material properties.
- Texture development, electromigration and reliability in copper and aluminium microelectronic interconnects.
- Study of fabric in geological materials.
- Thin films, in particular growth of epitaxial layers with applications in solar cells, thin film transistors, non volatile memories, ferroelectric films, and light emitting and laser diodes.
- Influence of grain boundary properties on fracture.
- High temperature superconductors, including the influence of texture and grain boundary type on superconducting properties.
- Measurement and distribution of strain in deformed materials
- Orientation of secondary phases and precipitates.
- Phase identification, discrimination and fraction determination including analysis of intermetallic materials, carbides and hydrides.
- Retained ferrite/austenite measurement in particular at microscopic levels.
- Through thickness variations in texture, for example in sputtering targets.
- Combination with focussed ion beams for three dimensional analysis of materials.
And much ...much more...