Experimental evidence concerning the significant information depth of electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD)

•Experimental evidence of the significant information depth of EBSD is presented.•Effects of the voltage and exemplary software settings are discussed.•Dependence of the significant information depth on the pattern quality is proposed.•The information depth may reach up to 142 nm in Si when using a voltage of 30 kV.•The information depth depends on the available technology.

Experiments concerning the information depth of electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) are performed on samples featuring an amorphous wedge on a crystalline substrate and a crystalline wedge on an amorphous substrate. The effects of the acceleration voltage and exemplary software settings on the ability to measure through an amorphous layer are presented. Changes in the EBSD-signal could be detected through a ≈142 nm thick layer of amorphous Si while orientation measurements could be performed through a ≈116 nm thick layer when using a voltage of 30 kV. The complexity of the information depth significant to a given EBSD-pattern and the multiple parameters influencing it are discussed. It is suggested that a “core information depth” is significant to high quality patterns while a larger “maximum information depth” becomes relevant when the pattern quality decreases or the sample is inhomogeneous within the information volume, i.e. in the form of partially crystalline materials or crystal layers in the nm scale.