Stress Analysis by Kossel Microdiffraction on a Nickel-Based Single Crystal Superalloy during an In Situ Tensile Test – Comparison with Classical X-Ray Diffraction

A Kossel microdiffraction experimental set up is under development inside a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) in order to determine the crystallographic orientation as well as the inter- and intragranular strains and stresses. An area of about one cubic micrometer can be analysed using the microscope probe, which enables to study different kinds of elements such as a grain boundary, a crack, a microelectronic component, etc. The diffraction pattern is recorded by a high resolution Charge-Coupled Device (CCD) camera. The crystallographic orientation, the lattice parameters and the elastic strain tensor of the probed area are deduced from the pattern indexation using a homemade software. The purpose of this paper is to report some results achieved up to now to estimate the reliability of the Kossel microdiffraction technique.