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Aporte Metalurgia Fisica
Aporte Metalurgia Fisica
References:
Porter and Easterling, Ch. 3.3.1-3.3.3, 3.4
Allen and Thomas, Ch. 5.3
Jim Howe, Interfaces in Materials
University of Virginia, MSE 6020: Defects and Microstructure in Materials, Leonid Zhigilei
Grain boundaries
Single-phase polycrystalline material consist many crystals or grains that have different
crystallographic orientation. There exist atomic mismatch within the regions where grains meet.
These regions are grain boundaries.
Structure and energy of a grain boundary is defined by the misorientation of the two grains and
the orientation of the boundary plane. 5 independent variables (degrees of freedom) are needed
to define the rotation axis, rotation angle and the plane of the boundary. Rigid-body translation of
two grains with respect to each other add 3 more variables.
twist axis
b b b
D sin D
2 2 2 sin( / 2)
D - dislocation spacing
for small
- misorientation angle
h
low-angle symmetrical tilt boundary in a
simple cubic lattice
x
University of Virginia, MSE 6020: Defects and Microstructure in Materials, Leonid Zhigilei
Low-angle grain boundaries
b b|
D D|
cos sin
University of Virginia, MSE 6020: Defects and Microstructure in Materials, Leonid Zhigilei
Low-angle grain boundaries
Low-angle grain boundaries (misorientation 15) can be represented by an array of dislocations
Low-angle twist boundary is a cross-grid of two sets of screw dislocations
University of Virginia, MSE 6020: Defects and Microstructure in Materials, Leonid Zhigilei
Energy of low-angle grain boundaries
for small , the distance between dislocations is large and the
energy of the grain boundary, GB, is proportional to the
dislocation density:
1 xx
GB ~ ~
D
GB 10-15
random high-
angle GB
low-
angle
TEM image of a small angle
tilt boundary in Si
University of Virginia, MSE 6020: Defects and Microstructure in Materials, Leonid Zhigilei
Energy of grain boundaries
1 SV SV GB
energy of random high angle GB: GB examples: [mJ/m 2 ]
3
(open disordered structure) Pt 2340 660
Ag 1140 375
Au 1410 378
Cu 1670 625
University of Virginia, MSE 6020: Defects and Microstructure in Materials, Leonid Zhigilei
Special high-angle grain boundaries
special boundary with good atomic fit low grain boundary energy
coherent twin
boundary
good atomic fit at coherent twin boundary low energy comparable to that of a stacking fault
University of Virginia, MSE 6020: Defects and Microstructure in Materials, Leonid Zhigilei
Special high-angle grain boundaries: Faceting
strong dependence of the GB energy on the orientation of the boundary plane optimization of
grain boundary - faceting, i.e., decomposition of the grain boundary plane into planes with low
energies (or large areas on low-energy planes + small areas of connecting high-energy planes)
53.1 rotation of a cubic lattice about [100] cases 1/5 of the lattice sites to coincide
The (100) twist and (210) tilt GB shown above are high-density planes of CSL correspond to
low-energy GBs
University of Virginia, MSE 6020: Defects and Microstructure in Materials, Leonid Zhigilei
Special high-angle grain boundaries: Coincidence site lattice
CSL is characterized by that is defined as
= volume ratio of the unit cell of the CSL to that of the original crystal lattice
= reciprocal density of coinciding sites
University of Virginia, MSE 6020: Defects and Microstructure in Materials, Leonid Zhigilei
Energy of high-angle grain boundaries
atomistic modeling experiment
low boundaries tend to have
lower energies than average
a a1
coherent
lattice misfit at the interface: 2
a1
even in the case of perfect atomic matching, there is always a chemical
contribution to the interface energy
University of Virginia, MSE 6020: Defects and Microstructure in Materials, Leonid Zhigilei
Coherent interphase boundaries
strain-free coherent (commensurate) interfaces:
two crystals match perfectly at the interface plane
interfacial plane has the same atomic configuration in both phases
The indices of the planes comprising the boundary do not have to be the
same in each phase but orientation relationship between the two phases
should be satisfied. This relationship is specified in terms of a pair of
parallel planes and directions, i.e., {hkl}//{hkl} and <uvw>//<uvw>
same crystal structure
Example: interface between and phases in Cu-Si
hcp phase
fcc phase different crystal structure
orientation relationship:
111 //0001 and 1 10
// 1120
University of Virginia, MSE 6020: Defects and Microstructure in Materials, Leonid Zhigilei
Strained coherent interphase boundaries
Small differences in lattice parameter can be accommodated by elastic strain and coherent
interface can be maintained. If the upper crystal is uniformly strained in tension and the lower
half uniformly compressed, the crystals match perfectly.
a2 a1
a2 a1
0
a1
This coherency strain reduces the interfacial energy at the expense of increasing energy of the
two phases adjoining the interface coherent interfaces are favored when
(1) interface is strong,
(2) misfit is small (few percent),
(3) the size of one of the crystals is small (thin overlayer or small precipitate)
While the structure of the interface is perfect, the interfacial energy is due to the bonding between
atoms from different phase (has only chemical contribution): 1 200 mJ/m 2
coh chem
University of Virginia, MSE 6020: Defects and Microstructure in Materials, Leonid Zhigilei
Semicoherent interphase boundaries
When the energy due to the coherency strain becomes too large, formation of a semicoherent
interface can become energetically favorable uniform elastic strains are replaced with
localized strain due to an array of dislocations that do not create long-range strain fields
a2 a1
a1 d
a2 b
dislocation spacing in 1D: D
a1 a2 b1
b - Burgers vector of misfit dislocations D1
2 1
University of Virginia, MSE 6020: Defects and Microstructure in Materials, Leonid Zhigilei
Semicoherent interphase boundaries
Example: lattice-mismatched Ag film - Cu-substrate interface
1
aCu 3.63 A a Ag aCu b [1 1 0 ]
2
1
0.13
a Ag 4.09 A aCu 1
b 2 [11 0 ]
2
b a
D1 D2 6.3a 5.44a b
2
coherency strain is partially relieved by misfit dislocations, Wu, Thomas, Lin, Zhigilei,
Appl. Phys. A 104, 781-792, 2011.
with residual compressive strain present in the film
Energies of semicoherent interfaces have both chemical and structural
(distortions due to the misfit dislocations) contributions: semicoh chem str 200 500 mJ/m 2
str can be estimated similarly to low-angle GBs, by dividing the energy per unit length of the
dislocations, Gb2/2, by the dislocation spacing, b/ str Gb/2. For G = 50 GPa, b = 3 ,
and = 0.01, str = 500.30.01/2 = 75 mJ/m2
similarly to low-angle GB, str ~ (proportional to density of dislocations) for large D but
following a logarithmic dependence and saturate as D decreases
University of Virginia, MSE 6020: Defects and Microstructure in Materials, Leonid Zhigilei
Shape of precipitates: Dependence on interfacial energy
lets consider a strain-free precipitate of phase in an phase matrix
the interface around a precipitate is, in general, not the same over the
entire surface - precipitates possess a mixture of interface types along
their surface
minimum free energy of this system corresponds to the orientation
Ai i min of the equilibrium shape
relationship and shape optimized to give the lowest tot N
remember our discussion
i 1
of crystallites and Wulff
coherent precipitates construction
small precipitates can form low-energy coherent
interfaces on all sides if and phases have the
same crystal structure and similar lattice parameter
Examples:
precipitation of fcc Co in Cu matrix, fcc Ag in Al matrix
fully-coherent precipitates are called Guinier-Preston zones
when and phases have different crystal structures, orientation relationship leading to low-
energy coherent or semi-coherent interface may be found only for one habitat plane
other planes will be incoherent and will have higher interfacial energies
Examples:
hcp Ti in bcc Ti (slowly cooled two-phase Ti alloys)
tetragonal phase precipitates in Al-Cu
hcp precipitates in Al-Ag
orientation relationship:
111 //0001 and 1 10
// 112 0
Widmansttten pattern in iron meteorites: precipitation and growth of Ni-poor kamacite (bcc)
plates in the taenite (fcc) crystals proceeds by diffusion of Ni at 450-700C, and take place
during very slow cooling that takes several million years the presence of large-scale
Widmansttten patterns proves extraterrestrial origin of the material
University of Virginia, MSE 6020: Defects and Microstructure in Materials, Leonid Zhigilei
Shape of precipitates: Dependence on interfacial energy
incoherent precipitates
precipitation on GB
heterogeneous nucleation at GB can give rise to precipitates that are incoherent on one side, and
semi-coherent on the other side
Cu-In alloy
shapes of precipitates are defined by minimization of the
interfacial energy and balance of interfacial tensions at
junctions of the interfaces and GB
A
coherency strain should be accounted N
Gs min
for in minimization of the free energy: i 1
i i
the elastic energy associated with the dilatational strains is of order 2 V, where V is the volume
of precipitate
for isotropic matrix and precipitate, the elastic energy is independent of shape: Gs = 4G2V
The precipitate with the smallest nucleation barrier (generally) appears first. Small nucleation
barriers are associated with coherent interfaces (small interfacial energy) and similar lattices
(small elastic energies from misfit).
University of Virginia, MSE 6020: Defects and Microstructure in Materials, Leonid Zhigilei
Loss of coherency
competition of volumetric elastic strain energy and interfacial energy precipitate may start as
fully coherent but nucleate interfacial dislocations once it reaches a critical size
Assuming that elastic strain energy is significant for the fully coherent precipitate but not for
incoherent or semicoherent ones, the free energies of crystals with coherent and non-coherent
precipitates can be written as
4
Gcoherent Gelastic Ginterface 4G 2 r 3 chem 4r 2
Gcoherent 3
G
Gnoncoherent Gelastic Ginterface 0 chem str 4r 2
Gnoncoherent
3 st
Gcoherent Gnoncoherent rcr
4G 2
1
for semicoherent interfaces with large D: st ~ rcr ~
rcr r
University of Virginia, MSE 6020: Defects and Microstructure in Materials, Leonid Zhigilei