An experimental viewpoint on the information depth of EBSD.

This article contains a critical review of the literature concerning the information depth of electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) and a viewpoint on the topic is formulated. EBSD is applied to a crystal partially covered by a wedge of amorphous glass. EBSD-patterns of decreasing quality are obtained from a crystal covered by an increasingly thick layer of glass. The location of the last indexable EBSD-patterns is compared to the last discernible contrast in SEM-micrographs obtained from the same crystal using accelerating voltages of 2-20 kV. It is concluded that the information depth of EBSD is at least as large as that of an SEM-micrograph obtained with a voltage of 4 kV from a non-tilted sample. Concepts of the information depth and experimental approaches are discussed. © Wiley Periodicals, Inc.