Practical Electron Microscopy and Database

The lateral and depth resolutions (or depth sensitivity) of EBSD are extremely anisotropic and are dependent on several parameters:
       i) Tilt angle of the specimen;
       ii) Accelerating voltage;
       iii) Probe current;
       iv) Working distance.

At high accelerating voltages the spatial resolution is reduced because of the increased penetration depth of the incident electrons in the specimen. Hjelen and Nes [1] proposed that the applicable lowest voltage for EBSD analysis is about 20 kV, which is needed to penetrate the aluminum coating of the phosphor screen. At this accelerating voltage, the lateral resolution for aluminum specimen, with sample tilted at 70°, is ~660 and ~250 nm, normal and parallel to the tilt axis, respectively, and the depth resolution (or depth sensitivity) of the diffraction volume is better than 50 nm. For instance, the depth sensitivity of EBSD is generally in the range between 10 and 40 nm at 20 kV, with the lower values reached for denser materials [2].