Comparison between diffraction contrast tomography and high-energy diffraction microscopy on a slightly deformed aluminium alloy

The grain structure of an Al-0.3 wt%Mn alloy deformed to 1% strain was reconstructed using diffraction contrast tomography (DCT) and high-energy diffraction microscopy (HEDM). 14 equally spaced HEDM layers were acquired and their exact location within the DCT volume was determined using a generic algorithm minimizing a function of the local disorientations between the two data sets. The microstructures were then compared in terms of the mean crystal orientations and shapes of the grains. The comparison shows that DCT can detect subgrain boundaries with disorientations as low as 1° and that HEDM and DCT grain boundaries are on average 4 µm apart from each other. The results are important for studies targeting the determination of grain volume. For the case of a polycrystal with an average grain size of about 100 µm, a relative deviation of about ≤10% was found between the two techniques.