Orientationally resolved grain size distributions in thin films

We study the grain structure of thin films in two dimensions. The grain structure is analyzed in terms of grain size and orientation, by means of electron backscattering diffraction (EBSD). We propose the line scan method for the efficient acquisition of data and define appropiate quantities for the description of the microstructure. These concepts are applied to a nickel thin film. The texture of this film is found to have three components (<111>, <100>, and random). The grain size distribution is bimodal where the large grains are all in <100> orientation. It is shown that the separation of grain size and grain orientation allows a more complete characterization of grain structures and reveals information not visible in conventional grain size distributions.