Deformation microstructures in shock-compressed single crystal and powdered rutile

Abstract

Shock recovery experiments on the single crystal rutile and the powdered rutile were performed using a single-stage propellant gun to investigate the effects of porosity (i.e., temperature effect) on the formation of shock-induced deformation microstructures. X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy analyses of the shocked single crystal rutile revealed the occurrence of a high-density stacking fault in the {101} plane of rutile. This defect suggests that the dominant slip system causing the plastic deformation of the crystal was {101}<101> at lower temperatures, forming stacking faults. Additionally, part of the crystal exhibited intergrowth with the α-PbO₂ structure in a topotaxial relationship: <100>_Rutile // <001>_α-PbO2. Topological analysis suggests that the single crystal rutile transforms into the α-PbO₂ structure concomitantly with the shear deformation via the fluorite structure. In contrast, the shocked powdered rutile primarily comprises particles with pervasive entangled dislocations and recrystallized particles, where the α-PbO₂ structure was not observed at all. Considering the absence of stacking faults, the dominant slip system in the shocked powdered rutile should have been {110}<001>, which is expected to work more actively at higher temperatures. These contrasting results on shocked rutile indicate that the shock heating effect and the initial porosity significantly influenced the deformation microstructures and high-pressure phase transformations of rutile in shocked meteorites as well as in impact crater rocks.