Applications of electron backscatter diffraction to materials science: status in 2009

Over the last two decades electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) in the scanning electron microscope has become a powerful tool for the characterisation of crystalline materials. Via an in-depth analysis of published work in 2008 compared with 2003, this article captures the present contribution that EBSD is making to materials science. From the analysis it is shown that some aspects of EBSD application have increased greatly in recent years, particularly the range of materials analysed, microtexture determination, general microstructure characterisation, application to interfaces and combinations of EBSD with other applications such as modelling or materials testing. On the other hand some other applications of EBSD are still emerging, such as macrotexture determination, true phase identification and three-dimensional EBSD.