Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 February 2011
Detailed structural characterization of a near Σ11 grain boundary in ultra-pure α-A12O3 bi-crystals was performed by means of high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). High-resolution imaging revealed a characteristic periodic pattern along the grain boundary. In addition to HRTEM studies, atomistic simulations based on an ionic model were used to calculate three-dimensional structure models that were compared with the experimentally obtained images of the grain boundary. The comparison between the simulated and experimental HRTEM images showed good agreement for the theoretically proposed grain-boundary structure with the lowest grain-boundary energy of 1.8 Jm−2.