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EBSD analysis can provide information about grain orientation, texture and grain boundary misorientation of bulk superconducting MgB2 samples intended for supermagnet applications. However, as the grain size of the MgB2… Click to show full abstract
EBSD analysis can provide information about grain orientation, texture and grain boundary misorientation of bulk superconducting MgB2 samples intended for supermagnet applications. However, as the grain size of the MgB2 bulks is preferably in the 100–200 nm range, the common EBSD technique operating in reflection mode works only properly on highly dense samples. In order to achieve reasonably good Kikuchi pattern quality on all types of MgB2 samples, we apply here the newly developed transmission EBSD (t‐EBSD) technique to spark‐plasma sintered MgB2 samples. This method requires the preparation of TEM slices by means of focused ion‐beam milling, which are then analysed within the SEM, operating with a custom‐built sample holder. To obtain multiphase scans, we identified the Kikuchi pattern of the MgB4 phase which appears at higher reaction temperatures and may act as additional flux pinning sites. We present here for the first time EBSD mappings of multiple phases, which include MgB2, MgB4 and MgO.