Electron energy loss near edge structures of intermetallic alloys and grain boundaries in NiAl

Transition metal aluminides are of great potential interest for high temperature structural applications. Although these materials exhibit good mechanical properties at high temperature, their use in industrial applications is often limited by their intrinsic room temperature brittleness. Whilst this particular yield behaviour is directly related to the defect structure, the properties of the defects (in particular the mobility of dislocations and the slip system on which these dislocations move) are ultimately determined by the electronic structure and bonding in these materials. The lack of ductility has been attributed, at least in part, to the mixed bonding character (metallic and covalent) as inferred from ab-initio calculations. In this work, we analyse energy loss spectra and discuss the features of the near edge structure in terms of the relevant electronic states in order to compare the predictions on bonding directly with spectroscopic experiments. In this process, we compare spectra of late transition metal (TM) to early TM aluminides (FeAl and TiAl) to assess whether differences in bonding can also be detected. This information is then discussed in terms of bonding changes at grain boundaries in NiAl.