The weighted Burgers vector: a new quantity for constraining dislocation densities and types using electron backscatter diffraction on 2D sections through crystalline materials

The Weighted Burgers Vector (WBV) is defined here as the sum, over all types of dislocations, of [(density of intersections of dislocation lines with a map) x (Burgers vector)]. Here we show that it can be calculated, for any crystal system, solely from orientation gradients in a map view, unlike the full dislocation density tensor, which requires gradients in the third dimension. No assumption is made about gradients in the third dimension and they may be non-zero. The only assumption involved is that elastic strains are small so the lattice distortion is entirely due to dislocations. Orientation gradients can be estimated from gridded orientation measurements obtained by EBSD mapping, so the WBV can be calculated as a vector field on an EBSD map. The magnitude of the WBV gives a lower bound on the magnitude of the dislocation density tensor when that magnitude is defined in a coordinate invariant way. The direction of the WBV can constrain the types of Burgers vectors of geometrically necessary dislocations present in the microstructure, most clearly when it is broken down in terms of lattice vectors. The WBV has three advantages over other measures of local lattice distortion: it is a vector and hence carries more information than a scalar quantity, it has an explicit mathematical link to the individual Burgers vectors of dislocations and, since it is derived via tensor calculus, it is not dependent on the map coordinate system. If a sub-grain wall is included in the WBV calculation, the magnitude of the WBV becomes dependent on the step size but its direction still carries information on the Burgers vectors in the wall. The net Burgers vector content of dislocations intersecting an area of a map can be simply calculated by an integration round the edge of that area, a method which is fast and complements point-by-point WBV calculations.