Resolving the geometrically necessary dislocation content by conventional electron backscattering diffraction

From local orientation measurements on planar surfaces by means of electron backscattering diffraction, six components of the lattice curvature tensor can be identified. They allow determination of five components of the dislocation density tensor (thus two more than hitherto reported) and, additionally, one difference between two other components. With this information improved lower bounds for the geometrically necessary dislocation content are obtained by linear optimization. (c) 2008 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.