Grain Boundary and Interface Structures in Ceramics

Abstract

This paper reviews grain boundary and interface structures in ceramics. Firstly, geometrical treatments are briefly described for both grain boundary and hetero-interface. For the grain boundary, grain boundary character, small angle grain boundary, coincidence site lattice (CSL) theory, structure unit, segregation and amorphous grain boundary are reviewed to show a couple of examples observed in ceramics. For the hetero-interface, O-lattice theory, lattheory, latry, latace, O-lattice theory, latry, lattttice coherency and interfacial dislocation are discussed and the results obtained for metal/ceramics interfaces are introduced. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) enables us to characterize the very narrow regions less than 1nm, and therefore is powerful technique for investigating grain boundary and interface structures. In this paper, recent experimental TEM studies are presented to demonstrate grain boundary and interface characterization at high spatial resolution.