Applications of electron backscattered diffraction to studies of annealing of deformed metals

The applicability of electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) to studies of thermo mechanical processing is outlined and its relationship to other microtexture methods is discussed. Applications of the technique are grouped into three types. First, the measurement of orientation/misorientation of large numbers of crystallites enables the orientation gradients and misorientation distributions to be measured. Second, EBSD at specific microstructural heterogeneities enables detailed information to be obtained about annealing mechanisms. Third, EBSD in conjunction with in situ scanning electron microscope annealing is shown to be a powerful techniquefor studying boundary mobilities and the development of microstructure.