Do you work with EBSD or XRD to analyze microstructures and textures? Then this workshop will take your skills to the next level. You will

  • gain a deeper crystallographic understanding
  • import, clean, and segment EBSD data with ease
  • explore misorientations and grain boundary networks
  • compute and interpret tensorial properties such as stress, strain, elasticity, and thermal expansion
  • understand and apply parent-grain reconstruction and phase-transformation tools
  • master advanced statistical methods for EBSD analysis
  • become confident with powerful visualization techniques
  • discover that MTEX enables you to do (almost) everything you can imagine with your data

This two-week workshop is accredited as the module Introduction into Crystallographic Texture Analysis and earns you 5 ECTS points. The first week is primarily devoted to beginners in MTEX and/or texture analysis. The second week brings together MTEX users of varying experience levels to share use cases, tips and tricks, and to discuss recent and upcoming developments in MTEX.

Participation is possible both in person and remotely. You may also join for a single week, or combine on-site and remote participation.

Week 1: Learning Crystallographic Texture Analysis with MTEX

Date: 02.03.2026 - 06.03.2026

During the first week we provide on a daily basis lectures covering the principles of EBSD, texture and crystallography and their relation to plastic deformation and macroscopic properties. All concepts will be illustrated via practical examples during the exercises within MTEX.

Monday: EBSD - First Analysis Steps and Crystallographic Background

Lecture 0 - General Concepts: video , slides
Matlab basics and general concepts of MTEX, the class vector3d, spherical coordinates

Lecture 1 - EBSD (Rüdiger Kilian) slides , video
principle concept, data import, basic data cleanup, orientation maps, color keys

Exercise 1 script , solution , data , video

Lunch

Lecture 2 - Orientations and Symmetries (Ralf Hielscher) slides , video
crystal lattice, direct and reciprocal coordinate system, Miller indices, zonal axes, crystal shapes, point groups, Laue groups, symmetrically equivalent orientations, pole figures, inverse pole figures, fundamental sectors

Exercise 2 script , data , video

Tuesday: Grains - Reconstruction, Analysis and Misorientations

Lecture 3 - Grains (Rüdiger Kilian) slides , video
segmentation, shape properties, orientation properties, grain selection, grain statistics

Exercise 3 script , video

Lunch

Lecture 4 - Misorientations and Grain Boundaries (Vivian Tong) slides , mlx-script , video
grain boundary misorientations, misorientation axis, misorientation angle, KAM, GOS, IGMA, twin boundaries, tilt vs. twist boundaries, orientation, gradients, statistics of boundary networks

Exercise 4 script , data , mlx-script , video

Wednesday: Orientation Distribution Function and Excursion

Lecture 5 - Density Functions (Ralf Hielscher) slides 1 , slides 2 , video
kernel density estimation, orientation density function, pole density function, inverse pole density function, model ODFs, ODF characteristics, random sampling, ODF reconstuction from XRD data

Exercise 5 script , video

Lunch

Excursion: Terra Mineralia (Mineral exhibition)

Thursday: Data Polishing, Tensorial Properties and Elastic Deformations

Lecture 6 - How to set up your EBSD map correctly (Vivian Tong) script , video
Correction of spatial coordinates, reference frame alignment, denoising

Exercise 6 - TrueEBSD for intragranular misorientation analysis script , mlx-script , video


Lunch

Lecture 7 - Quantitative Microstructure Analysis (Rüdiger Kilian) slides , video
grain shape, grain boundary and grain size statistics


Exercise 7 - Fabric Analysis script , video

Friday: Plastic Deformations, Orientation Relationships and Phase Transition

Lecture 8 - Plasticity (Ralf Hielscher) slides , video
deformation tensors, slip systems, dislocation systems, Schmid Factor, Taylor factor,

Exercise 8 - Plasticity script , video

lunch

Lecture 9 - Parent Grain Reconstruction (Ralf Hielscher) script , video
determination of orientation relationships, phase transition, parent grain reconstruction, transformation textures, variant selection

Free Discussion of Personal Data Sets script , data 1 , data 2

Times: Lecture 1: 8:00 - 9:30, Exercise 1: 10:00 - 11:30, Lecture 2: 13:00-14:30, Exercise 2: 15:00 - 16:30

Week 2: MTEX in Applications

Date: 9.03.2026 - 12.03.2026

The second week is a get together of new and experienced MTEX users to share their use cases of MTEX, research results and MTEX specific tricks and tips. There will be introductory lectures by invited experts that explain their workflow in specific applications of MTEX. To encourage discussions we plan with slots of 20 minutes talks followed by 10 minute discussions. As we expect a very heterogeneous auditorium we kindly ask the participants to keep their talks as accessible as possible.

Keynote Speakers

Time Schedule

Venue:

Location: TU Freiberg (Saxony), Germany (click for details)

Please make sure that you are planning to travel to Freiberg (Saxony). There are other cities in Germany with a similar name.
Location of the Workshop: Hörsaalgebäude, Prüferstraße 4

Accommodation: (click for details)

please use the keycode “Professor Hielscher MTEX Workshop” when booking the rooms

Hotel Kreller: 80 Euro per night with breakfast, very close

Hotel am Obermarkt: 79 Euro per night without breakfast, very close

Elly Hostel: 77 Euro per night, with kitchen

Registration:

Registration Fee:

  • first + second week (presence): (PhD) students - 400 Euro, other - 600 Euro
  • first + second week (online): (PhD) students - 200 Euro, other - 300 Euro
  • second week: (PhD) students - 100 Euro, other - 200 Euro
  • Payment includes: Lunch for all days and Excursion fee
  • Registration for students of the TU Freiberg and the University of Halle is free of charge

Organizers:

Ralf Hielscher (TU Bergakademie Freiberg), Rüdiger Kilian (Universität Halle), Luiz Morales (ETH Zürich), Vivian Tong (National Physical Laboratory UK)