The shape of idealized grain boundaries

Electrical Properties of Grain Boundaries

The electrical properties of grain boundaries are very different in insulators, semiconductors and metals. We present them briefly in the case of insulators and semiconductors and with more details in the case of metals.

Irreversibility and the statistics of grain boundaries

For most coarsening systems, we do not understand how or why the evolution produces a statistical steady state. In a paper appearing in Physical Review B, Katayun Barmak at Carnegie Mellon University and colleagues present theoretical arguments to explain the statistics of grain boundaries in a polycrystalline material after the occurrence of coarsening due to annealing [1]. Recent experimental...

Grain boundaries in the Swift-Hohenberg equation

We study the existence of grain boundaries in the Swift-Hohenberg equation. The analysis relies on a spatial dynamics formulation of the existence problem and a centre-manifold reduction. In this setting, the grain boundaries are found as heteroclinic orbits of a reduced system of ODEs in normal form. We show persistence of the leading-order approximation using transversality induced by wavenum...

Grain Boundaries in Polycrystalline Alumina

Layering transitions at grain boundaries

We review various simplified models that have been advanced to describe layering (complexion) transitions at grain boundaries in multicomponent solids. In particular, we first outline lattice-gas, off-lattice atomistic and thermodynamic models that have been employed to investigate phase-like behavior at segregated grain boundaries. The results of these investigations are summarized in the form...