OIM^TM is commonly used to evaluate many types of materials and minerals. To maximize the performance of EBSD, sample sample preparation must be carefully performed. Many samples have their own requirements for preparation.

The majority of samples require some degree of mechanical polishing. There are six steps to a complete mechanical polish: Sectioning, Coarse Grinding, Mounting, Fine Grounding, Rough Polishing, and Final Polishing.

In addition there are many metallographic guidelines available on the Internet, including Metallography.com and the websites of major metallographic consumable suppliers such as Buehler, Struers, and LECO.

OIM^TM map of a partially prepared Al-Si alloy microstructure that exhibits surface scratches and requires more preparation.

• A polishing procedure must be followed using a gradual reduction of grinding/polishing coarseness. Skipping steps is not advisable, even though a "good" optically apparent microstructure is produced
  
  
• A given polishing step must completely remove the deformation created by the preceding polishing step
  
  
• A vibratory polisher is a commonly required for the final polish

Download EDAX-TSL’s Specimen Preparation Guide for a full, step by step process

Below are a series of image pairs showing electron micrographs (left) and EBSD images (right) and the effects of progressively better sample preparation on the pattern quality observed.