Nanoscale mapping of the electron density at Al grain boundaries and correlation with grain-boundary energy

Proloy Nandi; Xiahan Sang; Eric R. Hoglund; Raymond R. Unocic; Dmitri A. Molodov; James M. Howe

doi:10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.3.053805

Nanoscale mapping of the electron density at Al grain boundaries and correlation with grain-boundary energy

Proloy Nandi, Xiahan Sang, Eric R. Hoglund, Raymond R. Unocic, Dmitri A. Molodov, James M. Howe

Materials MicroAnalysis

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5 Scopus citations

Abstract

Grain-boundary (GB) structures and energies are often calculated and have revealed correlations between the GB energy and change in electron density at the GB. In this work, the plasmon peak in valence electron energy-loss spectroscopy (VEELS) was used to determine the variation in electron density across four well-characterized GBs in Al, spanning a range of known GB energies. The results show that the plasmon energy is lower at the GB than in the adjacent grains due to a decrease in electron density, and the GB energy increases proportional to the density decrease. The decrease in electron density also extends further into adjacent grains with increasing GB energy, extending beyond the geometric changes, or physical width, revealed by electron microscopy. Plasmon damping also increases with increasing GB energy, indicative of increasing disruption of the electron density with increasing GB energy. These results demonstrate that VEELS can be a valuable tool for detecting small electron density changes at GBs, and this change clearly influences, and is correlated to, the GB energy.

Original language	English
Article number	053805
Journal	Physical Review Materials
Volume	3
Issue number	5
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.3.053805
State	Published - May 16 2019

Funding

J.M.H., P.N., and E.R.H. are grateful for funding under NSF Grant No. DMR-1106230 and the VPR Office at UVA. The authors thank Dr. Eric Stach and Dr. Dong Su for help with research conducted in part at CFN-BNL supported by the U.S. DOE-BES under Contract No. DE-SC-00112704, and acknowledge research supported as part of a user proposal at ORNL-CNMS, which is a U.S. DOE Office of Science User Facility (X.S. and R.R.U.). J.M.H., P.N., and E.R.H. are grateful for funding under NSF Grant No. DMR-1106230 and the VPR Office at UVA. The authors thank Dr. Eric Stach and Dr. Dong Su for help with research conducted in part at CFN-BNL supported by the U.S. DOE-BES under Contract No. DE-SC-00112704, and acknowledge research supported as part of a user proposal at ORNL-CNMS, which is a U.S. DOE Office of Science User Facility (X.S. and R.R.U.).

Funders	Funder number
U.S. DOE-BES
National Science Foundation	DMR-1106230
U.S. Department of Energy	DE-SC-00112704
Office of Science
Norsk Sykepleierforbund
Universidad de Valladolid

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10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.3.053805

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title = "Nanoscale mapping of the electron density at Al grain boundaries and correlation with grain-boundary energy",

abstract = "Grain-boundary (GB) structures and energies are often calculated and have revealed correlations between the GB energy and change in electron density at the GB. In this work, the plasmon peak in valence electron energy-loss spectroscopy (VEELS) was used to determine the variation in electron density across four well-characterized GBs in Al, spanning a range of known GB energies. The results show that the plasmon energy is lower at the GB than in the adjacent grains due to a decrease in electron density, and the GB energy increases proportional to the density decrease. The decrease in electron density also extends further into adjacent grains with increasing GB energy, extending beyond the geometric changes, or physical width, revealed by electron microscopy. Plasmon damping also increases with increasing GB energy, indicative of increasing disruption of the electron density with increasing GB energy. These results demonstrate that VEELS can be a valuable tool for detecting small electron density changes at GBs, and this change clearly influences, and is correlated to, the GB energy.",

author = "Proloy Nandi and Xiahan Sang and Hoglund, {Eric R.} and Unocic, {Raymond R.} and Molodov, {Dmitri A.} and Howe, {James M.}",

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AU - Sang, Xiahan

AU - Hoglund, Eric R.

AU - Unocic, Raymond R.

AU - Molodov, Dmitri A.

AU - Howe, James M.

PY - 2019/5/16

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N2 - Grain-boundary (GB) structures and energies are often calculated and have revealed correlations between the GB energy and change in electron density at the GB. In this work, the plasmon peak in valence electron energy-loss spectroscopy (VEELS) was used to determine the variation in electron density across four well-characterized GBs in Al, spanning a range of known GB energies. The results show that the plasmon energy is lower at the GB than in the adjacent grains due to a decrease in electron density, and the GB energy increases proportional to the density decrease. The decrease in electron density also extends further into adjacent grains with increasing GB energy, extending beyond the geometric changes, or physical width, revealed by electron microscopy. Plasmon damping also increases with increasing GB energy, indicative of increasing disruption of the electron density with increasing GB energy. These results demonstrate that VEELS can be a valuable tool for detecting small electron density changes at GBs, and this change clearly influences, and is correlated to, the GB energy.

AB - Grain-boundary (GB) structures and energies are often calculated and have revealed correlations between the GB energy and change in electron density at the GB. In this work, the plasmon peak in valence electron energy-loss spectroscopy (VEELS) was used to determine the variation in electron density across four well-characterized GBs in Al, spanning a range of known GB energies. The results show that the plasmon energy is lower at the GB than in the adjacent grains due to a decrease in electron density, and the GB energy increases proportional to the density decrease. The decrease in electron density also extends further into adjacent grains with increasing GB energy, extending beyond the geometric changes, or physical width, revealed by electron microscopy. Plasmon damping also increases with increasing GB energy, indicative of increasing disruption of the electron density with increasing GB energy. These results demonstrate that VEELS can be a valuable tool for detecting small electron density changes at GBs, and this change clearly influences, and is correlated to, the GB energy.

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Nanoscale mapping of the electron density at Al grain boundaries and correlation with grain-boundary energy

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