Orientation and misorientation characteristics of annealed, rolled and recrystallized copper

The texture and microstructure of annealed, rolled and recrystallized copper (99.99%) were investigated using conventional X-ray diffraction and single-crystal electron backscattering diffraction (EBSP) in a scanning electron microscope. From the EBSP data, misorientation distribution functions for next neighbor orientation relationships were derived, which show that the undeformed (annealed) starting material and the recrystallized sample have primary and secondary twin correlations, whereas in the deformed sample no preferred misorientations are observed. The microtexture of a single grain with twin lamellae in the deformed sample was analyzed in detail using automated analysis of electron backscattering diffraction patterns. The twin relationship is transformed continuously into a high angle grain boundary during deformation. Orientation gradients within one grain increase steadily up to 20°.