Which polishing is recommended for EBSD specimen preparation in case of extruded Al alloys particularly 6000 series, Mechanical polishing, or Electropolishing?
I recommend both, but mechanical polishing can be easier than electropolishing which may require electrolyte for this alloy to be kept at low temperature otherwise unstable.
My suggestion: Grind with SiC paper down to #1000, then polish with Diamond 9, 3 and 1 µm. Finally, polish with OPS. Be careful not to form a deformation layer.
I have done the EBSD of 6061 alloy. Start grinding upto 2500 grit size abrasive paper, followed by dimanond polishing 9, 3 and 1 µm. Then electropolish it with A2 struers solution or 6:4 C2H5OH: HClO4 for 25 V, 30 sec. You need to optimize the etching time for your sample. Also, the solution is to be maintained at very low temperature (use liquid nitrogen).