Feature Article: Influencing grain boundary properties by the application of mechanical stress fields

Abstract

Our Feature Article [1] reviews the different reaction and motion of low- and high-angle grain boundaries in high-purity metals under mechanical stresses. The cover picture shows the microstructure at the surface of a polycrystalline Al–2%Mg alloy. Both figures illustrate the same sample area. In the upper left part the grains are coloured according to their orientation whereas in the underlying figure the grain boundaries are classi-fied due to their desorientation angles (black: high angles >15°, red: low angles <5°, blue: 5–15°). Myrjam Winning is head of the research group “Crystal Plasticity” at the Institute of Physical Metallurgy and Metal Physics of RWTH Aachen University. Her main research topics are grain boundary mechanics and dynamics as well as ultra-fine grained materials. Myrjam Winning is the winner of this year's Hertha Sponer prize sponsored by the German Physical Society. This issue also contains the Editor's Choice “Nanoparticle incorporated superconductor Bi-2212 tapes” by Raghu. N. Bhattacharya et al. [2]. (© 2004 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)