3D electron backscatter diffraction characterization of fine α titanium microstructures: collection, reconstruction, and analysis methods.

3D electron backscatter diffraction (3D-EBSD) is a method of obtaining 3-dimensional crystallographic data through serial sectioning. The recent advancement of using a Xe plasma focused ion beam for sectioning along with a complementary metal-oxide semiconductor based EBSD detector allows for an improvement in the trade-off between volume analyzed and spatial resolution over most other 3D characterization techniques. Recent publications from our team have focused on applying 3D-EBSD to understand microstructural phenomena in Ti-6Al-4V microstructures as a function of electron beam scanning strategies in electron beam powder bed fusion additive manufacturing.