Patent ID: 9671354
Date: 2017-06-06
CPC Classifications: G01N,H01J

Claim:
1. A method for analysing electron backscatter diffraction data generated from a sample material, comprising: a) obtaining an image data set representative of an image of electron backscatter diffraction bands from the sample material; b) generating a set of estimated first diffraction parameters defining individual electron backscatter diffraction bands in the image data set; c) selecting a candidate phase and a set of plane indices consistent with a set of calculated plane normals for at least a subset of the defined diffraction bands; d) simulating identified diffraction bands for the candidate phase according to the Bragg angle for each indexed band and second diffraction parameters; e) adjusting, so as to refine, the second diffraction parameters for each of the simulated identified bands so as to maximize the sum of the slopes in the image values across the simulated band edges to fit each of the simulated bands to the corresponding identified bands in the image data; and, f) using the refined second diffraction parameters for the identified bands to calculate a fitted orientation for the candidate phase together with a corresponding fitting parameter defining the quality of fit, wherein the first and second diffraction parameters are rho and phi angles for the band centers of the simulated identified bands, each of which is modulated independently during the said adjusting of the second diffraction parameters in a fit to a single band.