Combined EDS & EBSD: Elemental & Microstructural Analysis

The Correlation of Microstructure with Composition

By correlating the crystallographic orientation information from EBSD with the elemental composition data from EDS, researchers can gain insights into how microstructural features influence material properties and performance.

Phase Identification

When attempting to determine phases EDS can help reduce the list of potential candidate phases by using the local chemical composition to refine search filters in crystallographic databases. EBSD can then be used to pinpoint which of these candidate phases best fits the Kikuchi pattern acquired from the same location with the EDS spectrum. For more on this, please see the following Application Notes: 

Phase discrimination

Certain samples contain phases with very similar chemical composition that however have different crystal structures, such as iron oxides (Magnetite, Hematite, Wüstite), titanium oxides (Rutile and Anatase), calcium carbonates (Calcite and Aragonite), and more. Whilst these phases are very difficult or even impossible to separate using EDS, they can be easily separated with EBSD.

Similarly, there are samples containing phases with similar crystal structures or producing similar Kikuchi patterns but that have very different chemical compositions, e.g. metals or alloys with a Face Centered Cube (FCC) structure (Al, Ni, Cu, Au, Ag, etc). Such phases are very difficult (or impossible) to separate using EBSD but would pose no challenge to separate using EDS. 

Defect Analysis

EBSD can be used to study defects such as grain boundaries, dislocations, and twins, while EDS can provide information about segregation, precipitation, and other compositional variations associated with these defects.

Mapping and Imaging

Both techniques can be used for mapping and imaging, allowing researchers to visualize the evolution of crystallographic orientations and elemental compositions across a sample. Visualizing this evolution is critically important during in-situ experiments when microstructural changes can happen very fast. Here we will add more content when eWARP is ready. I already have a plan for and know exactly what we’ll add.  

Overall, the combination of EBSD and EDS techniques provides a powerful analytical approach for understanding the structure-property relationships in materials, which is essential for various fields of materials science like metallurgy and semiconductor research. Combined EBSD & EDS is also a popular tool among geoscientists working with little known samples containing multiple phases.