Interlaboratory comparison of strain measurement by high resolution electron backscatter diffraction

An interlaboratory comparison (ILC) has been conducted to evaluate the data analysis uncertainty component from High angular Resolution Electron BackScatter Diffraction (HR-EBSD) elastic strain measurements. Fourteen participants in the ILC performed HR-EBSD analysis on identical sets of data acquired at NPL and NIST, from a Si-SiGe candidate reference material with independently measured tetragonal elastic strains. The elastic strain uncertainty is ± 10-4 in unstrained crystal and ± 10-3 in strained crystal, and is dominated by systematic errors in pattern centre location. Recommendations are given for how to measure and report strain uncertainty in HR-EBSD, as well as potential topics and design of follow-on ILCs.