Patent ID: 7978821

Claim:
An apparatus for mapping a specimen having a grain orientation, the apparatus including in combination: the specimen having a polycrystalline surface; an x-ray source creating an x-ray beam, the beam having polychromatic photons, the beam collimated to a point on the polycrystalline surface; a two-dimensional x-ray detector with an aperture, the x-ray beam passing through the aperture, the two-dimensional x-ray detector detecting and collecting a plurality of polychromatic photons diffracted from the polycrystalline surface and on to the two-dimensional x-ray detector which define a Laue pattern; a Computer Numeric Control (CNC) system for moving the specimen with respect to the x-ray source and the two-dimensional x-ray detector; a data processing means to direct the Computer Numeric Control (CNC) system to move the specimen and to collect Laue patterns as a function of the spatial location on the polycrystalline surface to the two-dimensional detector; and the data processing means further identifying a plurality of crystallographic orientations and a plurality of grain surface areas on the polycrystalline surface based on the Laue patterns.