Long-period ordered structure in a high-strength nanocrystalline Mg-1 at% Zn-2 at% Y alloy studied by atomic-resolution Z-contrast STEM Original Research Article

The microstructure of a nanocrystalline Mg97Zn1Y2 (at%) bulk alloy prepared by warm extrusion of rapidly solidified powders has been investigated by a combination of techniques, such as conventional high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), atomic-resolution high-angle annular dark field scanning-TEM (HAADF-STEM) with Z-contrast and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) with a sub-nanometer electron probe. We show that a novel long-period ordered structure is formed in the alloy, whose unit cell is composed of six close-packed planes of the magnesium crystal with a stacking sequence of ABCBCB′ where A and B′ layers are significantly enriched by Zn and Y. The lattice is distorted from an ideal hexagonal lattice of 6H-type (ABCBCB), which is probably due to an asymmetry of the chemical order with respect to the 6H-type stacking order. The present results demonstrate that the additional elements of a few atomic percent to Mg lead to formation of a long-period chemical-ordered as well as stacking-ordered structure, as directly revealed by a unique Z-contrast method.