Dynamical simulation of electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) patterns of imperfect crystals
(2012)
Different models of Kikuchi pattern formation are compared with respect to their applicability to noncentrosymmetric crystals, and the breakdown of Friedel's rule in experimental electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) patterns is discussed. Different AIIIBV semiconductor materials are used to evaluate the resulting asymmetry of Kikuchi band profiles for polar lattice planes. By comparison with the characteristic etch pit morphology on a single-crystal surface, the polar character of the measured lattice planes can be assigned absolutely. The presented approach enables point-group-resolved orientation mapping, which goes beyond the commonly applied Laue group analysis in EBSD.
We demonstrate an approach to overcome Kikuchi pattern misindexing problems caused by crystallographic pseudosymmetry in electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) measurements. Based on the quantitative comparison of experimentally measured Kikuchi patterns with dynamical electron diffraction simulations, the algorithm identifies the best-fit orientation from a set of pseudosymmetric candidates. Using measurements on framboidal pyrite (FeS2) as an example, we also show the improvement of the orientation precision using this approach.
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 submicrometer level within individual grains in polycrystalline materials.
Kikuchi diffraction patterns can provide fundamental information about the lattice metric of a crystalline phase. In order to improve the possible precision and accuracy of lattice parameter determination from the features observed in Kikuchi patterns, some useful fundamental relationships of geometric crystal-lography are reviewed, which hold true independently of the actual crystal symmetry. The Kikuchi band positions and intersections and the Kikuchi band widths are highly interrelated, which is illustrated by the fact that all lattice plane trace positions of the crystal are predetermined by the definition of only four traces. If, additionally, the projection centre of the gnomonic projection is known, the lattice parameter ratios and the angles between the basis vectors are fixed. A further definition of one specific Kikuchi band width is sufficient to set the absolute sizes of all lattice parameters and to predict the widths of all Kikuchi bands. The mathematical properties of the gnomonic projection turn out to be central to an improved interpretation of Kikuchi pattern data, emphasizing the importance of the exact knowledge of the projection centre.
We analyse the signal formation process for scanning electron microscopic imaging applications on crystalline specimens. In accordance with previous investigations, we find nontrivial effects of incident beam diffraction on the backscattered electron distribution in energy and momentum. Specifically, incident beam diffraction causes angular changes of the backscattered electron distribution which we identify as the dominant mechanism underlying pseudocolour orientation imaging using multiple, angle-resolving detectors. Consequently, diffraction effects of the incident beam and their impact on the subsequent coherent and incoherent electron transport need to be taken into account for an in-depth theoretical modelling of the energy- and momentum distribution of electrons backscattered from crystalline sample regions. Our findings have implications for the level of theoretical detail that can be necessary for the interpretation of complex imaging modalities such as electron channelling contrast imaging (ECCI) of defects in crystals. If the solid angle of detection is limited to specific regions of the backscattered electron momentum distribution, the image contrast that is observed in ECCI and similar applications can be strongly affected by incident beam diffraction and topographic effects from the sample surface. As an application, we demonstrate characteristic changes in the resulting images if different properties of the backscattered electron distribution are used for the analysis of a GaN thin film sample containing dislocations.