| Abstract Scope |
Al2O3 has been widely used for engineering applications because of their superior mechanical properties. It has been known that the behavior of GB properties is strongly dependent on the GB characters such as misorientation angle between two adjacent crystals and GB plane, however, such effects have not been clarified yet. These effects are much influenced by the dopant segregation at GBs during sintering. In this study, in order to clarify the GB atomic structures, various bicrystals including several types of GBs with and without rare-earth doping were fabricated. Then, the atomic structures and chemistry in thus fabricated GBs were characterized by atom-resolved STEM, EDS and EELS. In addition, GB segregation and diffusion behaviors were directly observed from the samples in which several metal dopants were diffused from the edge of GBs. Dynamic behavior of GB migration was also observed by new method of the high-energy electron beam irradiation. |