Analysis of Twin in Mg Alloys Using Electron Backscatter Diffraction Technique

Electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) is widely used for quantitative microstructural analysis of the crystallographic nature of variety of materials such as metals, minerals, and ceramics. EBSD can provide a wide range of information on materials including grain size, grain orientation, texture, and phase identity. In the case of metallic alloys, EBSD now has become an essential technique to analyze the texture, particularly when severe deformation is applied to the alloys. In addition, EBSD can be one of the very useful tools in identification of twin, particularly in Mg alloys. In Mg alloys different type of twin can occur depending on the c/a ratio and stacking fault energy on the twinning plane. Such an occurrence of different type of twin can be most effectively analyzed using EBSD technique. In this article, the recent development of Mg alloys and occurrence of twin in Mg are reviewed. Then, recently published example for identification of tension and compression twins in AZ31 and ZX31 is introduced to explain how EBSD can be used for identification of twin in Mg.