Five-fold branched Si particles in laser clad AlSi functionally graded materials

Abstract

Many five-fold branched Si particles (Si p) were observed in Al–40 wt% Si functionally graded materials produced by a single-step laser cladding process on cast Al-alloy substrate. In this paper the five-fold twinning and growth features of Si p are scrutinized with orientation imaging microscopy and electron microscopic examination. It is a more in depth study of formation of the Si particles in functionally graded materials as published in our previous paper [Pei, Y. T. and De Hosson, J. Th. M., Acta mater., 2000, 48, 2617]. These Si particles have grown from twinned decahedron nuclei consisting of five tetrahedrons that share a common 110 axis. The twin plane re-entrant edge (TPRE) mechanism explains both the branch growth in the radial direction and the elongation of Si p along their common 110 axis. Subsequent twinning within the twinned tetrahedrons provides additional re-entrant grooves on their top faces, which are important for the rapid elongation and consequently for the continuous growth of the branched particle. The 7.5° mismatch that arises by putting together five tetrahedrons around a common 110 axis is accommodated by small-angle grain boundaries (SAGBs). The SAGBs may disturb the progress of growth steps, which causes the particles to branch. The most remarkable facts of the study are that the five-fold branched silicon particles are much bigger (25∼40 μm) than the nanometer sizes previously reported in the literature and the 7.5° mismatch is accommodated mainly by multiple SAGBs. The examples of a single SAGB reported before are just a special case of the SAGB mechanism.