Accommodation of angular incompatibilities between interfacial facets during precipitate growth

Precipitate growth in a duplex stainless steel and a titanium aluminide alloy has been studied using transmission electron microscopy. Particles with similar crystallography and acicular form arise in both cases, and are bounded by two principal facets. One facet, designated C, is based on a commensurate singular interface structure, and the coherency strains are accommodated by interfacial defects. The other facet, designated I, is based on a singular configuration that is incommensurate in one dimension. The orientation relationship (OR) between the particle and the matrix for the singular C structure is Kurdjumov-Sachs (K-S), whereas that for the I facet is Pitsch. The angular incompatibility between these two types of facets must be accommodated to minimize the displacement field as particles grow. The present observations suggest that this is accomplished through the generation of crystal dislocations at facet junctions and their subsequent climb along the facets. The total density of defects needed to accommodate the angular discrepancy is fixed, but the partitioning of these dislocations between C and I facets is not. The actual partitioning determines the observed OR for a particle, and is determined by the kinetics of climb, which is likely to be different in the two facets. In the stainless steel, the observations are consistent with climb occurring in both the C and I facets, but faster in the I facet, leading to a distribution of observed ORs that is skewed away from Pitsch toward K-S. In the titanium aluminide alloy, no climb into the C facets was found, so a unique OR close to K-S arises. This article is based on a presentation made in the “Hume-Rothery Symposium on Structure and Diffusional Growth Mechanisms of Irrational Interphase Boundaries,” which occurred during the TMS Winter meeting, March 15–17, 2004, in Charlotte, NC, under the auspices of the TMS alloy Phases Committee and the co-sponsorship of the TMS-ASM Phase Transformations Committee.