This data archive has been provided in an effort to share digital data about grain boundaries. Whenever possible, raw data is provided. In most instances, interpreted data and the programs used to interpret the data are also provided. At the current time, I am trying to ensure that contemporary data is available, while also seeking and posting legacy data.

I have tried to label everything as carefully as possible. However, this is a challenging task. If you have not before tried to utilize old data, the perils and frustrations are accurately depicted in the humorous cartoon video, entitled "Data Sharing and Management Snafu in 3 Short Acts, by Karen Hanson, Alisa Surkis, and Karen Yacobucci" at this link. I recommend that you watch this video before accessing the data in this archive.

To understand the motivation for creating this archive, I should provide some background. In the late 1990s, I started a project with many students and colleagues at Carnegie Mellon to measure the populations and properties of grain boundaries in polycrystalline materials. The project was, at that time, funded by the MRSEC program of the National Science Foundation. As our understanding of the nature of grain boundaries improved, so did our abilities to analyze the data and make comparisons. So, while there might be some advantage to going back and re-analyzing data acquired 10 or 15 years ago, it was very difficult to locate and understand the content of the files (again, to understand this, watch the video and note that "there are many boxes"). So, the main motivation for this archive is to have a central location for all of the orientation maps from which we determine grain boundary data.

A secondary motivation is to make this data available to anybody who might have a use for it. These data take a long time to acquire, using expensive microscope time, so they are valuable. While I and my colleagues have extracted the information we want from this data, there are other aspects to be analyzed, depending on your interest. If you wish to use the data, you may do so without my permission. For the data that has been published, please cite the publication referred to on the relevant page.

If you wish to know more about mesoscale grain boundary data and its interpretation, I direct you to the following references:

This archive is maintained by G.S. Rohrer, contact information