h5ebsd: an archival data format for electron back-scatter diffraction data sets

We present an archival format for electron back-scatter diffraction (EBSD) data based on the HDF5 scientific file format. We discuss the differences between archival and data work flow file formats, and present details of the archival file layout for the implementation of h5ebsd, a vendor-neutral EBSD-HDF5 format. Information on sample and external reference frames can be included in the archival file, so that the data is internally consistent and complete. We describe how the format can be extended to include additional experimental modalities, and present some thoughts on the interactions between working files and archival files. The complete file specification as well as an example h5ebsd formatted data set are made available to the reader.