High-resolution transmission electron microscopy and computational analyses of atomic structures of [0001] symmetric tilt grain boundaries of Al₂O₃ with equivalent grain-boundary planes

Abstract

Al₂O₃ bicrystals containing [0001] symmetric tilt grain boundaries were fabricated to investigate atomic structures at their grain-boundary cores. Σ7 and Σ21 boundaries studied here have crystallographically equivalent grain-boundary planes of although they have different Σ values. Grain-boundary structures were studied by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and static lattice calculations based on ionic potentials. HRTEM observations showed that the Σ7 and Σ21 boundaries exhibited asymmetric core structures with respect to their grain-boundary planes. From static lattice calculations, it was found that these two grain boundaries have similar rigid-body shifts normal to the tilt axis and also contain open spaces at their core. The similarity of their core structures indicates that characteristics of grain-boundary cores strongly depend on features of grain-boundary planes.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a grant-in-aid for scientific research from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan. We would like to express thanks to Dr Gale for allowing us to use the GULP code.