Microstructural analysis with electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD)
involves sectioning and polishing to create a flat and preparation-artifact
free surface. The quality of EBSD analysis is often dependant on this step, and
this motivates us to explore how broad ion beam (BIB) milling can be optimised
for the preparation of zircaloy-4 with different grain sizes. We systematically
explore the role of ion beam angle, ion beam voltage, polishing duration and
polishing temperature and how this changes the surface roughness and indexing
quality. Our results provide a method to routinely prepare high-quality
Zircaloy-4 surfaces, and methods to optimise BIB polishing of other materials
for high-quality EBSD studies.