Crystal-Air surface

Interphase
boundary

Crystal Boundary
Crystal-Crystal

Grain
boundary
2D DEFECTS
(Surface / Interface)

Stacking Faults

Anti-phase Boundary
Twin Boundary

Low
angle
High
angle

Low
angle
External

Grain boundary
Rotation

2D DEFECTS
(Surface / Interface)

Homophase

High
angle

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

Homophase

Based on axis
Based on Lattice Models

Twist
Tilt
Mixed
Special

Based on Geometry
of the Boundary plane

Random
Curved
Faceted
Mixed

CSL

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
Surface Energy/
unit area (J/m2)

na . nb . Eb

No. of bonds broken/ unit area

Bond energy / bond

As two surfaces are created / bond broken

Surface free energies of some crystals (J/m2)

NaCl

LiF

CaF2 MgO

0.30

0.34

0.45

1.2

Si

Ag

Fe

Au

Cu

1.24

1.14

1.4

1.4

1.65

Grain
boundary

Interphase
boundary

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 < 10
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 < 10)

Two extremes

TILT

TWIST

An array of edge dislocations

An array of screw dislocations

Rotation axis lies on the

boundary plane

Rotation axis lies to the

boundary plane

Low angle tilt grain boundary

b

Sin
2h
2

b
~
h

b
tan
h

2h

Book

~8 TILT BOUNDARY IN SrTiO3 POLYCRYSTAL

2.761

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. Rhle, Z Metallkd, 92 (2001) 2

Stacking Fault
Error in the sequence of stacking atomic planes Stacking fault
Defined by a shift vector
FCC stacking

FCC stacking
with a stacking fault

ABC ABC ABC ABC

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

Twin Boundary

~ 0.63
0.498 (Cu)

Stacking Fault

0.08 (Cu)
0.2 (Al)

Comparison of Interfacial Energies of Various 2D Defects

Metal

Surface

Solid/
Liquid

Grain
Twin
Boundary Boundary

Stacking
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