Nanoscale Localized Phonons at Al2O3 Grain Boundaries

• DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.3c04149
• Publication Date: 2024-03-11T17:19:20Z
• Authors: Jingyuan Yan; Ruochen Shi; Jiake Wei; Yuehui Li; Ruishi Qi; Mei Wu; Xiaomei Li; Bin Feng; Peng Gao; Naoya Shibata; Yuichi Ikuhara
• Keywords: Grain boundary strengthening

Nanoscale defects like grain boundaries (GBs) would introduce local phonon modes and affect the bulk materials' thermal, electrical, optical, mechanical properties. It is highly desirable to correlate atomic arrangements for individual precisely understand structure–property relation. Here we investigated localized of Al2O3 GBs by combination vibrational electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) in scanning transmission microscope density functional perturbation theory (DFPT). The differences between GB obtained from EELS show that exhibited more active vibration at range <50 meV >80 meV, further DFPT results proved wide distribution bond lengths are main factor emergence modes. This research provides insights into phonon-defect relation be importance design application polycrystalline materials.