Electron-irradiation-induced phase transformation in alumina

Received 23 June 2010; received in revised form 21 July 2010; accepted 22 July 2010. published online 28 July 2010.

In this study, electron-irradiation-induced phase transformations between alumina polymorphs were investigated by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. It was found that the electron-irradiation-induced α→κ′ phase transformation occurred in the alumina under 100keV electron irradiation. It is likely that the knock-on collision between incident electrons and Al3+ cations is responsible for the occurrence of electron-irradiation-induced phase transformation from α-alumina to κ′-alumina.

Keywords: Ceramics, Phase transformations, Electron irradiation, Transmission electron microscopy

a Research Center for Ultra-High Voltage Electron Microscopy, Osaka University, 7-1 Mihogaoka, Ibaraki, Osaka 567-0047, Japan

b Functional Materials Division, Korea Institute of Materials Science, 531 Changwondaero, Changwon, Gyeongnam 641-831, Republic of Korea

Corresponding author. Tel.: +81 6 6879 7941; fax: +81 6 6879 7942.

PII: S1359-6462(10)00501-4

doi:10.1016/j.scriptamat.2010.07.028

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