Basic differences between martensitic and bainitic transformations revealed by high-resolution electron microscopy

High-resolution electron microscopy is employed to observe the atomic arrangement of very tip of the growing martensite plate and that of the growing bainite. Transition lattice region with a certain dimension (more than a few nm), of which the structure is neither fcc nor bcc, but an intermediate one between fcc and bcc lattice, is found in martensite but not in bainite. Because of this fact, it is concluded that the martensitic transformation is of the shear-type transformation and the bainitic transformation is of the diffusion-type transformation.