Our FEI MLA 650FEG is equipped with an Oxford EBSD system and the Nordlys II camera. The EBSD system includes the Mineralogical Society of America minerals database for verifying mineral identification and determining crystalline lattice orientations.

The method is based on backscattered electrons being channelled by crystalline lattice planes when the angle of an incident electron beam is near 30 degrees (Sample tilted to 70 degrees). The resulting emission presents an image with a pattern that is characteristic of the mineral's crystallography, and which can be captured by a digital camera. The variety of angles within the image, together with the locations where the bands meet (poles) are indicative of the crystal's symmetry and orientation. The EBSD technique is a very powerful researchers' tool, especially when the spatial resolution of the SEM is taken into account.