Anisotropic growth of multigrain in equiaxial solidification simulated with the phase field method

The phase field method has been mainly used to simulate the growth of a single crystal in the past. But polycrystalline materials predominate in engineering. In this work, a phase field model for multigrain solidification is developed, which takes into account the random crystallographic orientations of crystallites and preserves the rotational invariance of the free energy. The morphological evolution of equiaxial multigrain solidification is predicted and the effect of composition on transformation kinetics is studied. The numerical results indicate that due to the soft impingement of grains the Avrami exponent varies with the initial melt composition and the solidification fraction.     

Thermally induced birefringence in Nd:YAG ceramics

Analytical expressions for eigenpolarizations and phase delays in grains of thermally loaded Nd:YAG ceramic rods have been derived. It is shown that the depolarization of radiation in polycrystalline ceramics results in beam modulation with a characteristic size of the order of the ceramic grain size. It is reasonable to increase the ratio of rod length to grain length both to diminish this modulation depth and to compensate for birefringence by use of known techniques.     

X-ray topographic identification and measurement of plastic strains and elastic stresses in single crystallites of polycrystalline diamond layers

The well-known phenomenon of asterism is used as the basis for the development of an X-ray topographic method to identify and measure plastic strains and residual elastic stresses in single crystallites more than 3 μm in size in polycrystalline diamond layers. The amount of asterism is used as a quantitative measure of plastic strains in crystallites. The distribution of crystallites over the amount of asterism in 40-to 670-μm-thick microwave-plasma-deposited polycrystalline diamond layers is obtained. Shear plastic strains, which cause a misorientation from 0.4′ to 1.5° between different areas of a crystallite, are observed for the first time. The residual elastic stresses calculated in plastically strained crystallites vary between 2.7 kPa and 0.84 GPa.     

Strongly enhanced free-exciton luminescence in microcrystalline CsPbCl3 films produced via the amorphous phase

High-quality CsPbCl₃ films composed of crystallites with narrow size distributions are achieved for various size levels, from microcrystalline to polycrystalline, by a novel heat-treatment method applied to the same amorphous films. Their photoluminescence is dominated by free-exciton emission at every size level without showing trapped-exciton emission in great contrast to the case for single crystals. The microcrystalline state shows more than an order of magnitude stronger free-exciton emission than the polycrystalline state, and exhibits intense stimulated emission under high-power excitation.     

A study of kinetic effects in isotropic polycrystalline <Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>-type silicon

A formula is derived for calculating the relaxation time of charge carriers scattered both by a disordered atomic lattice of polycrystalline silicon and by a system of disordered potential barriers formed on the surfaces of crystallites in isotropic polycrystalline silicon. The hole relaxation time is analyzed, and the temperature dependence of hole mobility is calculated for the p-type polycrystalline silicon. The calculations of the Hall factor, differential thermal emf, transverse magnetoresistance, and coefficients of elastoconductivity due to hole scattering by the disordered atomic lattice and by the potential barriers formed on the crystallite surfaces in isotropic polycrystalline p-type silicon are also made. __________ Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 2, pp. 76–88, February, 2008.     

Crystallization Kinetics of Nucleated Polypropylene with Organic Phosphates

The crystallization kinetics of isotactic polypropylene (iPP) and nucleated iPP with two organic phosphates, sodium salt (NA7) and triglyceride ester (NA8) of 2,2'-methylene-bis(4,6-di-tert-butylphenyl) phosphoric acid, were investigated by means of a differential scanning calorimeter under isothermal and nonisothermal conditions. During isothermal crystallization, a modified Avrami equation was used to describe the crystallization kinetics. Moreover, kinetics parameters, such as the Avrami exponent, n, the crystallization rate constant, k, and the half-time of crystallization, τ_1/2, are compared. The results showed that a dramatic decrease of the half-time of crystallization, as well as a significant increase of the overall crystallization rate, were observed in the presence of the organic phosphates. During nonisothermal crystallization, the primary crystallization was analyzed using the Ozawa model, leading to similar Avrami exponents for iPP and iPP/NA7, which means simultaneous nucleation with three-dimensional spherulitic growth. However, for iPP/NA8, the Avrami exponent in nonisothermal crystallization is evidently different from that in isothermal crystallization, which would indicate a different mechanism of crystal growth. Adding the nucleating agent to iPP makes the overall crystallization activation energy increase.     

Impedance spectroscopic studies of planetary ball-milled lithium titanium phosphate material

The ac electrical conductivity properties of LiTi₂(PO₄)₃ (LTP) polycrystalline material in two different crystallite sizes are compared. Micrometer sized LTP is prepared by conventional solid-state reaction. LTP crystallites of 71 nm size are prepared by solid-state reaction of 40 h planetary milled stoichiometric mixture. The XRD and SEM are used as characterization techniques. Electrical properties are studied using impedance spectroscopic technique. Ball-milled LTP shows one order increase in grain-interior conduction compared to microcrystalline LTP at 388 K. The increase in conduction results from decreased crystallite size.     

Light transmission in inhomogeneous birefringent medium as a function of propagation and observation angles

We use the Mueller matrix for inhomogeneous linear birefringent media derived in Savenkov et al. [Mueller-matrix model of an inhomogeneous linear birefringent medium: single scattering case. JQSRT 2007;106:475–86] to generate new results on the forward scattering of light using Cloude's coherence matrix method. We show that the intensity of scattered light (m₁₁) as a function of observation angle depends on the difference between refractive indices along the eigen polarizations resulting in intensity lost when unpolarized light propagates parallel to the optical axes compared to propagation orthogonal to the optical axis. For a given inhomogeneity (roughness), depolarization strongly depends on the direction of light propagation in the medium. The depolarization at 90° propagation angle is minimal for any value of inhomogeneity. Sample calculations are based on calcite.     

Photoelasticity in polycrystalline aggregates

A theory for the photoelastic behaviour of transparent polycrystalline aggregates consisting of randomly oriented anisotropic crystallites has been developed. Such an aggregate is isotropic but it becomes birefringent under the influence of a uniaxial load. The photoelastic constants of the aggregate are given by the components of the spatial average of the photoelastic tensor of the single crystal, and are worked out by assuming either the strain to be continuous (Voigt approximation) or the stress to be continuous (Reuss approximation). The components of the average photoelastic tensor are very different for these two limits. The elastic and the photoelastic constants of alkali halide aggregates have been evaluated for both the stress continuity and the strain continuity conditions. The maximum variation of the elastic constants in going from the Voigt to the Reuss condition is 50 per cent while the photoelastic birefringence can vary by as much as 300 per cent in alkali halides. In the case of KI and rubidium halides even the sign of the photoelastic birefringence is different for the two limits.     

Nucleation and crystal growth in sheared granular sphere packings

We investigate the nucleation of ordered phases, their symmetries, and distributions in dense frictional hard sphere packings as a function of particle volume fraction ?, by imposing cyclic shear and constant applied pressure conditions. We show, with internal imaging, that the nucleating crystallites in the bulk consist of 10-60 spheres with hexagonal close packed (hcp) order and nonspherical shape, that are oriented preferentially along the shear axis. Above ?=0.62±0.005, crystallites with face centered cubic (fcc) order are observed with increasing probability, and ordered domains grow rapidly. A polycrystalline phase with domains of fcc and hcp order is observed after hundreds of thousands of shear cycles.     

Peroxide-based route assisted with inverse microemulsion process to well-dispersed Bi<Subscript>4</Subscript>Ti<Subscript>3</Subscript>O<Subscript>12</Subscript> nanocrystals

Well-dispersed bismuth titanate (BIT) nanocrystals with an average size ranged from 3 to 60 nm were synthesized via a peroxide-based route assisted with an inverse microemulsion process. The crystallite size and lattice parameter of BIT upon variable-temperature were determined by X-ray diffraction (XRD). The particle size was confirmed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Thermal decomposition behaviour of Ti-peroxy and BIT gel and crystallization kinetics of BIT nanocrystals were investigated by differential scanning calorimetry/thermogravimetry (DSC/TG) and Fourier-Transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Analysis of nonisothermal DSC data yielded a value of 220.84 ± 2.73 KJ/mol and 2.25 ± 0.26 for the activation energy of crystallization (E _a) and the Avrami exponent (n), respectively.     

Lidar Multiple Scattering in Water Droplet Clouds: Toward an Improved Treatment

Although it has long been recognized that the effects of photon multiple scattering generally need to be accounted for in the analysis of lidar cloud returns, this is a difficult problem and current approaches are still rudimentary. The multiple scattering process is controlled by the size of the lidar beamwidth and the distance to the cloud, which jointly determine the lidar footprint, but cloud microphysical content (i.e., particle size, concentration, and shape) exerts a strong influence on the range distribution and depolarization of the returned energy. Since clouds are inherently inhomogeneous with height, it is our premise that vertically homogeneous cloud simulations based on idealized particle size distributions lead to misleading results. We offer a more realistic approach based on the contents of growing water droplet clouds predicted by a sophisticated adiabatic cloud model, which are offered for use as new standard vertically-inhomogeneous cloud models. Lidar returned signal and depolarization profiles derived from our analytical double-scattering method are given for inter-comparison purposes.Presented at the 7th International Workshop on Multiple Scattering Lidar/Light Experiments (MUSCLE7), July 21–23 1994, Chiba, Japan.     

A Double Gaussian Beam Method for the Determination of Particle Size,Direction and Velocity

This paper describes a technique aimed at measuring particle size by light scattering from gaussian laser beams. The uncertainties in illumination due to the beam shape are avoided by determination of the direction and velocity. The method, which we arbitrarily called the Two Beam System (TBS), uses a simple birefringent prism to separate the incident laser beam into two orthogonally polarised overlapping parallel beams. The relative delay and amplitudes of the intensities scattered out of the orthogonal polarisations are indicative of the particle direction and velocity. Having obtained the direction of travel of the particle, its size is then obtained from the scattered intensity using Mie theory.     

Behavior of platinum crystallites on carbon substrates

A model catalyst suitable for examination in the transmission electron micrsocope is used to study the sintering of platinum crystallites. The model catalyst consists of a carbon film upon which metal crystallites have been deposited. The samples are subjected to heating at various temperatures for various times. Following the same region or different regions of a specimen before and after each heat treatment, it is shown that Pt crystallites as large as 20 nm in size migrate upon the substrate surface and sinter to form large crystallites. The chemical atmosphere, in particular O₂ or water vapor, strongly affects the migration even at very low pressures. Pt crystallites react with oxygen or water vapor at 500°C to form platinum oxide. Its presence is identified by electron diffraction and dark field election microscopy.     

Contribution of surface tension energy during plastic deformation of nanomaterials

The surface tension energy of crystallites in polycrystalline materials having different microstructures and in nanomaterials has been estimated. A hypothesis is proposed, according to which the yield stress of materials is determined by the balance of elastic energy and the surface tension energy of crystallites. The independently measured value of surface energy can be used to estimate the yield stress of polycrystalline materials.     

混浊介质中后向单次漫散射米勒矩阵特征

采用斯托克斯(Stokes)矢量形式,推导出当无限窄的连续光束垂直入射到混浊介质表面时,后向单次漫散射米勒(Mueller)矩阵的解析表达式。基于米氏(Mie)散射模式,详细分析了单次散射米勒矩阵元素的分布模式,以及与介质粒子数密度,粒子尺寸参量之间的关系。研究表明:单次散射米勒矩阵的方位变化随粒子数密度的增加,逐渐消失,而矩阵元素m22,m33,m23,m32随粒子数密度的变化,具有更显著的方位变化特征。矩阵元素m22,m33在方位角=45°时的值随尺寸参量的变化有一定的规律性,当尺寸参量小于某一特征参量时,其值呈下降趋势,反之则呈波动上升趋势。当介质粒子数密度以及粒子尺寸参量改变时,米勒矩阵元素强度的径向分布模式不变,即在任何方位,强度随径向距离都近似成指数规律衰减,方位变化呈周期性。     

Effective dichroism in forward scattering by inhomogeneous birefringent medium

The Mueller matrix model for inhomogeneous medium characterized by simultaneous linear and circular birefringence for single scattering in the forward direction is derived. We find that the presence of inhomogeneity results in the occurrence of new polarization effects. In particular, forward scattering by inhomogeneous birefringent medium exhibits linear and circular dichroism. We show that in the case of weak depolarization (when Cloude's entropy is less than 0.5), the initial parameters for linear and circular birefringence can be obtained from deterministic Mueller matrix associated with the largest eigenvalue of Cloude's coherency matrix. Sample calculations are given for quartz.     

Efficiency of second harmonic generation for partially coherent light in anisotropic crystals

This paper analyzes the second harmonic generation (SHG) efficiency of light with partial temporal coherence due to depolarization effects in birefringent media. It discusses relations between SHG efficiency fading, light source spectrum, crystal birefringence, and phase matching conditions. The efficiency of SHG pumped by the partially coherent light beam that may depolarize light in nonlinear birefringent crystal is also analyzed. The basic theory of SHG with its modification for partially coherent light with depolarization and some numerical calculations of the SHG process are described. Presented at 9-th International Workshop on Nonlinear Optics Applications, NOA 207, May 17–20, 2007, Świnoujście, Poland     

Effect of particle size of graphites on electrical conductivity of graphite/polymer composite

The effect of particle size of graphite particles on the dispersion state of graphite particles and electrical conductivity of graphite/low-density polyethylene (LDPE) composites is investigated. Graphite particles which have plate-like and spherical shapes and mean particle sizes of 2.1 to 82.6 μm are used. Scanning electron microscopy observation showed that graphite particles are not aggregated and ordered along the direction of mixing-roll in the polymer matrix. X-ray diffraction measurements show that crystallite size of the (110) plane of polyethylene crystal and the crystallinity are significantly affected by the particle size of graphite particles. These results were interpreted as due to the orientation of PE crystallites. The electrical conductivity of composites changes discontinuously at the critical volume fraction of particles, Ø_c. The Ø_c values given by the percolation equation increase with decreasing of the particle size of graphites. The plate-like graphite particles with a mean particle size of 2.1 μm could induce conductivity at Ø_c of 0.135. The values of Ø_c increased linearly with increasing of the mean particle sizes of the plate-like graphites. The value of Ø_c of spherical graphite particle is the largest value, 0.292, in all specimens.     

Elastic mechanical grain interactions in polycrystalline materials; analysis by diffraction-line broadening

Abstract

Experimental investigations have revealed that the Neerfeld–Hill and Eshelby–Kröner models, for grain interactions in massive, bulk (in particular, macroscopically isotropic) polycrystals, and a recently proposed effective grain-interaction model for macroscopically anisotropic polycrystals, as thin films, provide good estimates for the macroscopic (mechanical and) X-ray elastic constants and stress factors of such polycrystalline aggregates. These models can also be used to calculate the strain variation among the diffracting crystallites, i.e. the diffraction-line broadening induced by elastic grain interactions can thus be predicted. This work provides an assessment of diffraction-line broadening induced by elastic loading of polycrystalline specimens according to the various grain-interaction models. It is shown that the variety of environment, and thus the heterogeneity of the stress–strain states experienced by each of the individual grains exhibiting the same crystallographic orientation in a real polycrystal, cannot be accounted for by traditional grain-interaction models, where all grains of the same crystallographic orientation in the specimen frame of reference are considered to experience the same stress–strain state. A significant degree of broadening which is induced by the heterogeneity of the environments of the individual crystallites is calculated on the basis of a finite element algorithm. The obtained results have vast implication for diffraction-line broadening analysis and modelling of the elastic behaviour of massive polycrystals.