Probing structural disorder in zircon by electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD): Radiation damage and Kikuchi pattern

Electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) was employed to probe the structural order of a zoned radiation-damaged zircon (ZrSiO4) on the sub-micron scale. The amorphous fraction of the growth-zones is in the range of ∼45–80%, due to variations in the amount of incorporated uranium and thorium (∼0.22–0.43 wt% UO2 and ∼0.02–0.08 wt% ThO2) and the resulting alpha-decay events over time. The obtained Kikuchi patterns’ band contrast (bc) and band slope (bs) are indicative of the degree of atomic-scale order. The excellent correlation of both parameters with the evolution of the elastic modulus validates the methods reliability.