Characterizing the boundary lateral to the shear direction of deformation twins in magnesium

Authors

Y. Liu, Los Alamos National Laboratory
N. Li, Los Alamos National Laboratory
S. Shao, Los Alamos National Laboratory
M. Gong, University of Nebraska–Lincoln
J Wang, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
R.J. McCabe, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Y. Jiang, University of Nevada
C.N. Tome, Los Alamos National Laboratory

Date of this Version

2016

Citation

NATURE COMMUNICATIONS | 7:11577

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms11577

Comments

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Abstract

The three-dimensional nature of twins, especially the atomic structures and motion mechanisms of the boundary lateral to the shear direction of the twin, has never been characterized at the atomic level, because such boundary is, in principle, crystallographically unobservable.We thus refer to it here as the dark side of the twin. Here, using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and atomistic simulations, we characterize the dark side of {1012} deformation twins in magnesium. It is found that the dark side is serrated and comprised of {1012} coherent twin boundaries and semi-coherent twist prismatic–prismatic {2110} boundaries that control twin growth. The conclusions of this work apply to the same twin mode in other hexagonal close-packed materials, and the conceptual ideas discussed here should hold for all twin modes in crystalline materials.