Many-beam dynamical simulation of electron backscatter diffraction patterns

We present an approach for the simulation of complete electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) patterns where the relative intensity distributions in the patterns are accurately reproduced. The Bloch wave theory is applied to describe the electron diffraction process. For the simulation of experimental patterns with a large field of view, a large number of reflecting planes has to be taken into account. This is made possible by the Bethe perturbation of weak reflections. Very good agreement is obtained for simulated and experimental patterns of gallium nitride GaN{0001} at 20 kV electron energy. Experimental features like zone-axis fine structure and higher-order Laue zone rings are accurately reproduced. We discuss the influence of the diffraction of the incident beam in our experiment.