A more holistic characterisation of internal interfaces in a variety of materials via complementary use of transmission Kikuchi diffraction and Atom probe tomography

8 July 2020
Professor Michael Moody and Dr Paul Bagot
a schematic of a lift out bar containing a straight section of a grain boundary on the surface and potential sub surface locations

Benjamin A Jenkins, James O Douglas, Hazel M Gardner, David Tweddle, Anna Kareer, Phani S Karamched, Jonathan M Hyde, Paul A J Bagot, Michael P Moody and colleagues from Rolls-Royce, the National Nuclear Laboratory and the University of California exlain in this paper, published in Applied Surface Science, how complementary use of transmission Kikuchi diffraction (TKD) can provide a more holistic characterisation of grain boundaries in a variety of materials.

The novel specimen preparation protocol allowed for the grain boundary to be positioned more reliably within the apex of an Atom Probe Tomography specimen.   

They also reveal their method which allowed the grain boundary's five macroscopic degrees of freedom to be determined from the TKD data.