- The investigation of the microstructure in functional, polycrystalline thin films is an important contribution to the enhanced understanding of structure–property relationships in corresponding devices. Linear and planar defects within individual grains may affect substantially the performance of the device. These defects are closely related to strain distributions. The present work compares electron and X-ray diffraction as well as Raman microspectroscopy, which provide access to microstrain distributions within individual grains. CuInSe₂ thin films or solar cells are used as a modelsystem. High-resolution electron backscatter diffraction and X-ray microdiffraction as well as Ramanmicrospectroscopy were applied for this comparison. Consistently, microstrain values were determined of the order of 10⁻⁴ by these three techniques. However,only electron backscatter diffraction, X-ray microdiffraction exhibit sensitivities appropriate for mapping local strain changes at the submicrometerThe investigation of the microstructure in functional, polycrystalline thin films is an important contribution to the enhanced understanding of structure–property relationships in corresponding devices. Linear and planar defects within individual grains may affect substantially the performance of the device. These defects are closely related to strain distributions. The present work compares electron and X-ray diffraction as well as Raman microspectroscopy, which provide access to microstrain distributions within individual grains. CuInSe₂ thin films or solar cells are used as a modelsystem. High-resolution electron backscatter diffraction and X-ray microdiffraction as well as Ramanmicrospectroscopy were applied for this comparison. Consistently, microstrain values were determined of the order of 10⁻⁴ by these three techniques. However,only electron backscatter diffraction, X-ray microdiffraction exhibit sensitivities appropriate for mapping local strain changes at the submicrometer level within individual grains in polycrystalline materials.…