Automatic orientation determination from Kikuchi patterns

Some formal aspects of crystal orientation determination from Kikuchi patterns are discussed, with respect to writing general and fast algorithms for automatic indexing of the patterns and orientation determination. The geometry of the problem is presented in a general form which is also suitable for channeling patterns or X-ray Kossel patterns. Moreover, geometrical ambiguities and other reliability issues are considered. Some strategies designed to handle artifacts of automatic pattern analysis are presented. Finally, the reliability and the accuracy of the described procedures and the sensitivity of the results to the errors of the basic measurement parameters were tested on computer-generated patterns.