Strain mapping of a triple junction in nanocrystalline Pd Original Research Article

Aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopy was used to provide structural information on a triple junction in nanocrystalline Pd. This triple junction consists of two intersecting Σ3 twin boundaries with a Σ9 grain boundary and is connected to a quadruple point via the Σ9 grain boundary. A comprehensive strain analysis of this triple junction using geometric phase analysis is presented and compared with a molecular dynamics simulation. The main results are: (i) the strain field of the core of the triple junction shows dislocation character and extends over a distance of about 0.5 nm; (ii) the intersecting boundaries result in a net translation of image, which corresponds to a Burgers vector of an image dislocation in the fcc lattice; (iii) a disclination emerging from the triple junction along the Σ9 grain boundary is balanced by a disclination of opposite sign emerging from the quadruple point. Based on the observation that the core of the triple junction can be described by the strain field of a dislocation, its energy was estimated using image to be about 1.7 × 10−9 J m−1. The presence of a disclination dipole is thought to be essential for stabilization of the structure observed.