Structural study of a [100] 45° twist plus 7.5° tilt grain boundary in aluminium by HREM

A [100] 45° twist plus 7.5° tilt grain boundary in aluminium prepared by cold rolling and annealing has been studied by high-resolution electron microscopy. The direct interpretability of the image features in terms of atomic column positions allows structural models of the grain boundary to be developed. The boundary exibits a high concentration of steps due to the 7.5° tilt from a perfect [100] 45° quasiperiodic misorientation. Occurrence of co-incidence and pseudo co-incidence of atomic planes across the interface appears to play an important role in the formation of steps along this boundary. Local relaxation of atoms resulting from the perturbation of the [100] 45° twist bi-crystal determines the boundary structure.