Characterization of structural units in tilt grain boundaries

Abstract

General tilt grain boundaries can be viewed in terms of small structural units of varying complexity. High-resolution electron microscope (HREM) images of these boundaries in many materials show this repetitive similarity of the atomic structure at the boundary plane. The structure of particular grain boundaries has been examined for several special cases and commonly observed configurations include symmetric tilt grain boundaries and asymmetric tilt grain boundaries with one grain having a prominent, low-index facet. Several different configurations of the boundary structure may possibly occur, even in the same grain boundary. There are thus many possible ways to assemble the basic structural units to form a grain boundary. These structural units and their distribution have traditionally been examined by high-resolution electron microscopy. The images of the projection of the atomic columns (or the tunnels between atomic columns) providing a template for constructing “ball-and-stick ” models of the interface.