Crystal-Air surface

Interphase
boundary
Crystal Boundary
Crystal-Crystal Low
Grain angle
boundary
2D DEFECTS High
Stacking Faults
(Surface / Interface) angle

Anti-phase Boundary
Twin Boundary
 Low
angle
External
Grain boundary
High
Rotation
angle
2D DEFECTS
(Surface / Interface)
Homophase Twin Boundary
Mirror

Internal
Stacking Faults
Heteropase Translation

Anti-phase Boundary
(From lecture notes of Dr. Rajesh Prasad)
 Low angle

High angle

Based on angle of rotation Twist

Homophase Based on axis Tilt

Mixed
Based on Lattice Models

Special CSL

Based on Geometry Random

of the Boundary plane

Curved

Faceted
Mixed
 Coherent

Heteropase Semi-coherent

Incoherent
 Surface Imperfections

 2D in a mathematical sense
 The region of distortion is ~ few atomic diameters in thickness
 External surface of the crystal

 External surfaces have energy related to the number of bonds broken

at the surface
No. of atoms/ unit area
na . nb . Eb
Surface Energy/
unit area (J/m2)
γ No. of bonds broken/ unit area
2 Bond energy / bond

As two surfaces are created / bond broken

Surface free energies of some crystals (J/m2)

NaCl LiF CaF2 MgO Si Ag Fe Au Cu

0.30 0.34 0.45 1.2 1.24 1.14 1.4 1.4 1.65

 Grain Interphase
boundary boundary

Homophase Heterophase

Based on phase

Based on chemistry
of the bounding grains
Ordered Based on order Pure

INTERFACES
Disordered With segregation
Based on misorientation
of the bounding grains  Monolayer
 Multilayer

Special Random
 Low angle
 CSL
 Grain Boundary

 The grain boundary region may be distorted with atoms belonging to

neither crystal
 The thickness may be of the order of few atomic diameters
 The crystal orientation changes abruptly at the grain boundary
 In an low angle boundary the orientation difference is < 10º
 In the low angle boundary the distortion is not so drastic as the
high-angle boundary → can be described as an array of
dislocations
 Grain boundary energy is responsible for grain growth on heating
~ (>0.5Tm)
 Large grains grow at the expense of smaller ones
 The average no. of nearest neighbours for an atom in the grain
boundary of a close packed crystal is 11
 Type of boundary Energy (J/m2)
Grain boundary between BCC crystals 0.89
Grain boundary between FCC crystals 0.85
Interface between BCC and FCC crystals 0.63

Grain boundaries in
SrTiO3
 Low angle grain boundaries (misorientation < 10º)
Two extremes

TILT TWIST
An array of edge dislocations An array of screw dislocations

 Rotation axis lies on the  Rotation axis lies  to the

boundary plane boundary plane
Low angle tilt grain boundary
 b


2 2h

b   b b
 Sin   ~  tan 
2h  2 h h Book
 ~8º TILT BOUNDARY IN SrTiO3 POLYCRYSTAL

2.761 Å

No visible
Grain
Boundary

Fourier filtered image

Dislocation
structures at
the Grain
boundary
 Twin Boundary

 The atomic arrangement on one side of the twin boundary is related to

the other side by a symmetry operation (usually a mirror)
 Twin boundaries usually occur in pairs such that the orientation
difference introduced by one is restored by the other
 The region between the regions is called the twinned region

Annealing twins (formed during recrystallization)

Twin

Deformation twins (formed during plastic deformation)

 Twin boundary in Fe doped SrTiO3 bicrystals (artificially prepared)

High-resolution micrograph

Mirror related
variants

Twin plane

[1] S. Hutt, O. Kienzle, F. Ernst and M. Rühle, Z Metallkd, 92 (2001) 2

 Stacking Fault

 Error in the sequence of stacking atomic planes → Stacking fault

 Defined by a shift vector

FCC stacking …ABC ABC ABC ABC…

FCC stacking
with a stacking fault …ABC AB AB ABC…

Thin region of HCP type of stacking

 In above the number of nearest neighbours remains the same

but next-nearest neighbours are different than that in FCC
 Stacking fault energy ~ 0.01 – 0.05 J/m2
 Stacking fault in HCP can lead to thin region of FCC kind of stacking
Comparison of Energy of Various 2D Defects

Type of boundary Energy (J/m2)

Surface ~ 0.89
Grain boundary ~0.85
~ 0.63
Twin Boundary
0.498 (Cu)
0.08 (Cu)
Stacking Fault
0.2 (Al)
Comparison of Interfacial Energies of Various 2D Defects

Solid/ Grain Twin Stacking

Metal Surface
Liquid Boundary Boundary Fault
(J/m2)
Gold 1370 132 364 ~10 55
Silver 1140 126 790 - 17
Platinum 1310 240 1000 196 ~95
Nickel 1860 255 690 - ~400
Aluminium 1140 - 625 120 ~200
Copper 1750 177 646 44 73
Iron 1950 204 780 190 -
Tin 680 54.5 - - -