Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 February 2011
Polychromatic synchrotron x-ray microbeams offer a very efficient alternative to electron beam methods for quantifying the amount and character of grain subdivision accompanying large deformations. With a 0.01 mm diameter collimator, bending magnet radiation from a 3.0 GeV source and image storage plates, samples of copper with thicknesses greater than 0.1 mm have been studied. Results from an as-received sample and a sample deformed to 100% torsion are compared and illustrate how efficiently grain subdivision can be quantified with polychromatic microbeam diffraction.