A novel synchrotron-based technique, so-called high angular resolution 3DXRD, was presented and applied to the characterization of O-free, high-conductivity Cu at a tensile deformation of 2%. The position and shape in reciprocal space of 14 peaks originating from deeply embedded individual sub-grains was reported. From this dataset the density of redundant dislocations in the individual sub-grains was inferred to be below 12 x 1012/m2 on average. It was found that the sub-grains on average experienced a reduction in strain of 0.9 x 10−4 with respect to the mean elastic strain of the full grain, a rather wide distribution of the strain difference between the sub-grains (twice the standard deviation was 2.9 x 10−4), and a narrow internal strain distribution (upper limit was 2.4 x 10−4 full width at half maximum).

Direct Determination of Elastic Strains and Dislocation Densities in Individual Subgrains in Deformation Structures. B.Jakobsen, H.F.Poulsen, U.Lienert, W.Pantleon: Acta Materialia, 2007, 55[10], 3421-30