Quantitative studies of the nucleation of recrystallization in metals utilizing microscopy and X-ray diffraction

This thesis covers three main results obtained during the project: A reliable method of performing serial sectioning on metal samples utilizing a Logitech polishing machine has been developed. Serial sectioning has been performed on metal samples in 1 µm steps utilizing mechanical polishing, and in 2 µm steps when electrochemical polishing was needed. A method by which reliable EBSP line scans may be performed by scanning three parallel lines has been developed. This method allows lines of the order of 1 cm in length to be characterized with a 1 µm or better spatial resolution. The method is proven to be a good way of determining microstructural parameters, which are important when studying recrystallization dynamics. The nucleation of recrystallization at triple junctions has been studied by 3 dimensional X-ray diffraction (3DXRD), allowing for the first time the deformed and recrystallized microstructures to be compared at a given nucleation site in the bulk of a metal sample. From an experiment three nuclei were identified, their respective crystal orientations were determined, and growth curves were obtained for two of them.