Nucleation of small-angle boundaries

Abstract

The internal stresses induced by the strain gradients in an array of lattice cells delineated by low-angle dislocation boundaries are partially relieved by the creation of new low-angle boundaries. This is shown to be a first-order transition, the new boundaries having finite misorientations. The calculated misorientations both of the new boundaries and of the existing boundaries which provoke the transition agree well with observations.