In Situ TEM Analysis of Facet Motion in Gold Σ=3 {112} Boundaries

Interfacial anisotropy complicates the prediction of microstructural evolution, particularly ir extreme cases for which the presence of facets and corners prevents the application of classical notions of grain-boundary curvature. Although there has been much effort at incorporating anisotropic grain-boundary properties, including faceted geometries, into computational approaches for microstructural evolution, at present our mechanistic understanding of the behavior of facets anc their junctions remains limited. In this presentation, we investigate the development of faceted boundaries between Σ=3 <111> oriented grains in epitaxially deposited gold thin films. This system is well suited tc experimental studies of facet evolution since the crystallography and structure of the boundaries is already well understood. It is well known that “double-positioning” of epitaxially aligned <111> grains on a surface of three-fold or six-fold symmetry results in a microstructure composed of grains in two twin-related (Σ=3) variants that are separated by facets running vertically through the film and forming 120 degree corners [1,2].