Box-scan: A novel 3DXRD method for studies of recrystallization and grain growth

Within the last decade a number of x-ray diffraction methods have been presented for non-destructive 3D characterization of polycrystalline materials. 3DXRD [1] and Diffraction Contrast Tomography [2,3,4] are examples of such methods providing full spatial and crystallographic information of the individual grains.

Both methods rely on specially designed high-resolution near-field detectors for acquire the shape of the illuminated grains, and therefore the spatial resolution is for both methods limited by the resolution of the detector, currently ~2 micrometers. Applying these methods using conventional far-field detectors provides information on centre of mass, crystallographic orientation and stress state of the individual grains [5], at the expense of high spatial resolution.

However, far-field detectors have much higher efficiency than near-field detectors, and as such are suitable for dynamic studies requiring high temporal resolution and set-ups involving bulky sample environments (e.g. furnaces, stress-rigs etc.)