Refined Prediction and Observation of Dislocation Structures in Low Σ Symmetric Grain Boundaries

The grain boundary dislocation structures of three Fe–4at.% Si bicrystals with an additional misorientation of the order of 2° were studied by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), one S5 [001] (310) and two S9 [110] (1[`1]overline 14). It was found that in the S5 case two Burgers vectors of the structure are not simple basic complete displacement shift lattice (DSC) vectors and are larger than any one of them. This enabled formation of the preferred grain boundary dislocation (GBD) structure with a hexagonal net composed of three screw dislocations and an independent set of parallel edge dislocations. In the S9 case the GBD structure comprises three apparently independent sets of parallel dislocations. The Burgers vectors of two sets could be established as basic DSC vectors in screw and edge orientation, respectively, with respect to the GB plane. For the third set formed by separated groups of four dislocations no corresponding basic DSC vector exists. This case needs further investigation. The previously published table of predicted GBD structures for symmetrical coincidence boundaries up to S11 was refined according to the new results.