A simple protocol for identifying the orientation of cubic materials from SAED

What is it about?

This paper presents a simple method for identifying the crystal orientation of cubic materials from standard selected area electron diffraction by means of the long-known ratio method. All to do is to determine the lengths and angles between the three shortest reflections in each pattern. This allows to classify the diffraction pattern under investigation into one of three types. With the provided tables it is then possible to identify the orientation of the crystal lattice, the Bravais lattice type and to determine the indices of the used reflections.

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Photo by Roberto Sorin on Unsplash

Photo by Roberto Sorin on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Despite the annual increase in the number of crystal structures with increasing structural complexity, the study of metallic alloy systems, ceramics and semiconductors is still dominated by rather small unit cell phases with cubic or pseudo-cubic symmetry. Electron microscopists are therefore often tasked with analysing the diffraction patterns of cubic materials with respect to their structure and/or crystal orientation.

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