AZtecCrystal is Oxford Instruments’ modern, unique EBSD data-processing software, designed for the new era of high-speed EBSD detectors and ever-expanding EBSD applications. Since its inception in 2019, AZtecCrystal has undergone continuous development and now offers accessibility and capabilities suitable for novice and experienced users alike.
Features include:
- Excellent image correlation
- Complete texture analysis
- Instantaneous grain measurements
- Full boundary characterization
Benefits
AZtecCrystal is a comprehensive software package for processing data from electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD). It is easy to use for beginners in EBSD, yet it offers advanced capabilities for in-depth materials characterization and reanalysis of diffraction patterns for more experienced operators.
Image Credit: Oxford Instruments
Interrogating EBSD datasets has never been easier. AZtecCrystal features an easy-to-use, simple, and adaptable interface. Whether the user is a casual EBSD user who needs quick access to regular functions or an EBSD specialist who wants to extract comprehensive microstructural information from a sample, AZtecCrystal is for them.
Whatever the users demand from the EBSD data analysis, AZtecCrystal is guaranteed to deliver. New features in AZtecCrystal include:
STAMP
- The new 'Stamp' tool enables third-party data to be added to raw H5OINA files
- This can be done automatically using data from the file name
- It is possible to import external experimental data in a variety of formats, including Temp/Load/Extension parameters
Crystal Batch
- Apply AZtecCrystal's full processing capability to hundreds of map layers in a single, simple operation
- Perfect for Quality Control and for dependable and consistent data processing
Crystal Compare
- One easy step to edit and visualize the data stack
- For the first time, connect experimental parameters to certain map layers
- Capture the moment with Crystal Compare
Image Credit: Oxford Instruments
- Strain Analysis: Pattern Matching for routine strain analysis
- MapSweeper - Pattern Matching: Enhancement of the dataset by simulated pattern matching indexing on stored EBSPs
- Particle Analysis: Define the texture of each particle
- Classification Tool: Machine-learning classification of microstructure constituents
AZtecCrystal improves data by leveraging pattern matching. Use MapSweeper to solve unindexed points, improve the solution, and advance the study. Determine lattice parameter ratios and strained areas, accurately define similar phases, enhance measurement of deformed materials, and much more.
User Interface
- Intuitive interface with AZtec theme and a shared layout concept
- Multiple, user-selectable Viewing Modes to obtain the required analysis tools
- Separate project tree and settings panels for easy data and tool management
- Main workspace panes could be undocked and seen on several monitors
- User-selectable zooming for work on different screen resolutions
- Simple switch between Data Analysis mode and MapSweeper data enhancement mode
- Multiple language support
Map Display and Analysis
- Map display in either tabbed or (linked) tile form
- Multiple map interaction mode (including point and grain selection, profile measurement and subset creation)
- Compact legend display, exportable with maps
- Unlimited, customizable map creation using individual map layers: There are no restrictions on how many layers a map can have
- Multiple map layers, each fully customizable, including:
- Grain size, shape, and internal orientation distribution
- Grain / subgrain / phase boundaries
- Special boundaries (including twins and coincident site lattice boundaries)
- Orientation and lattice relationships
- Dislocation and weighted Burgers vector information
- Pattern quality and misfit
- SEM image colours and values
- Orientation colouring
- Texture components
- Strain and deformation (including GND density, Kernel Average Misorientation)
- EDS element distribution
- Display each map's values and distributions separately
- Misorientation profile analysis tool, with configurable width and various component displays
- Map navigator, to show position relative to the full dataset area
Texture Analysis
- Pole plot calculation and display
- Applied the sample symmetry option
- Data rotation to correct for sample mounting errors
- Full, customizable pole figure (PF) display
- Full, customizable inverse pole figure (IPF) display
- Full orientation distribution function (ODF) analysis
- User-defined settings, including ODF calculation and display, density contouring, projection selection, etc.
Grain Size Analysis
- Filtered grain size list for advanced data subsetting
- Twinned grain statistical analysis
- Utilize the parameter correlation tool to uncover relationships between grain-based measurements
- User-defined grain size measurement
- High-speed algorithms – 20,000 grains measured in < 15 s
- Multiple-grain model displays
- Grain size histogram display with arithmetic and area-weighted statistics
- Grain size number given to the ASTM E2627 standard
SEM Image Viewer – Display of Electron Images with Post-Acquisition Drift / Distortion Correction
- Selection and display of any electron image from the same AZtec site of interest (e.g., forescatter, BSE, or SE images)
- EBSD map overlay with adjustable transparency
- Comprehensive distortion correction is used to correct drift during EBSD mapping:
- Simple mode to correct for constant drift or distortion
- Extended mode utilizes the co-localization of features in the electron image and EBSD map
- Correct EBSD data can be saved as a new dataset for subsequent analysis
AZtecCrystal MapSweeper – Dataset Enhancement and Re-Indexing Using Pattern Matching Technology
- Full EBSD pattern simulation using kinematical, 2-beam or many-beam dynamical models
- Fast image cross-correlation of experimental and simulated patterns
- High-accuracy calibration refinement tool
- Pattern weighting or masking improves matching for patterns with shadows or substantial signal variations
- Multiple “sweep” types:
- Indexing sweep – full re-indexing using a novel dynamic template matching method
- Refinement sweep – uses existing phase/orientation results to enhance data quality
- Orientation refinement
- Pseudosymmetry correction (including measurement of crystal polarity)
- Phase discrimination
- Strain analysis
- Repair sweep: corrects misindexed measurement errors and successively eliminates non-indexed points
- Analyses employ local pixel geometry calibration for increased precision
- All analyses (save the "Indexing sweep") could be carried out on a conventional PC / laptop – no GPU required
- Reanalysis speeds up to > 1000 Hz
- Multiple applications include severely deformed materials, nanocrystalline samples, high-precision dislocation analysis, and semiconductor polarity determination
Tailored for Key Applications
AZtecCrystal offers rapid, high-throughput analysis of any EBSD dataset. AZtecCrystal is optimized for speed while remaining user-friendly, enabling the adaptability of the EBSD process for users of varying expertise levels. The principal fields of use are listed below. However, AZtecCrystal is perfectly suited for any application of the EBSD technique:
- Additive Manufacturing
- Metals Processing
- Structural Geology
- Surface Coatings
Further Applications
AZtecCrystal has been utilized in the following applications to reveal new information:
Failure Analysis in Steels and Superalloys
Image Credit: Oxford Instruments
- Understanding the propagation of cracks across materials is critical for designing materials that are less likely to fail
- AZtecCrystal offers a variety of tools for researchers to explore the accumulation of plastic strain at crack tips and the link between grain structure, orientation, and crack propagation
Determining Prior Austenite Grain Size in Steels
Image Credit: Oxford Instruments
- In many materials, such as martensitic steels and Ti alloys, knowing the parent grain microstructure is critical since it has a major impact on the ultimate grain size and hence the resultant material strength
- AZtecCrystal has a thorough parent grain analysis tool that reconstructs the parent microstructure based on orientation relationships, allowing detailed assessments of the grain size, boundary features, and texture of the previous austenitic microstructure
Measuring Texture in Rolled Steels
Image Credit: Oxford Instruments
- Texture, the preferred crystallographic orientation of grains, regulates several essential material characteristics and is a critical parameter in most treated metals, such as rolled steel
- AZtecCrystal provides all the tools required for measuring and analyzing texture in materials, including orientation distribution functions (ODFs), pole and inverse pole figures, customizable texture component maps, and several techniques to estimate texture fractions
Understanding Deformation Processes in Rocks
Image Credit: Oxford Instruments
- Understanding the response of rocks to stress and strain, as well as fluctuations in temperature and pressure, is critical for understanding the mechanisms that drive plate tectonics, induce earthquakes, and result in ore mineral emplacement
- AZtecCrystal provides quick findings emphasizing deformation processes, either in map form or through more complex methodologies like boundary disorientation analysis
Elastic Properties of Additively Manufactured Ti Alloys
Image Credit: Oxford Instruments
- AZtecCrystal's Materials Properties viewing mode can determine a material's elastic properties based on each grain's orientation.
- This enables researchers to immediately convert raw EBSD data into information on key physical features of materials, such as the relationship between build direction and yield strength in 3D-printed Ti64 alloys.
Grain Boundary Engineering of Electronic Components
Image Credit: Oxford Instruments
- The electrical performance of components is closely related to the distribution and nature of crystallographic boundaries between and within grains; regulating this is known as grain boundary engineering
- AZtecCrystal offers the quick characterization of boundary populations, establishing the proportion of specific boundaries (such as coincident site lattice boundaries), and the correct measurement of grain sizes on the nanometer to micrometer scale
The Latest Developments in EBSD Software
The Latest Developments in EBSD Software. Video Credit: Oxford Instruments