Bicrystal growth and characterization of copper twist grain boundaries

Copper bicrystals with twist character were grown using the vertical Bridgman technique. Cu bicrystals were grown such that the grain boundary in each sample had a nominal twist misorientation consisting of either a low angle (10 degrees), a special angle (Sigma5 = 36.87 degrees), or a high angle (45 degrees). The grain boundary plane in all cases was (1 0 0). The grain boundaries were grown using single-crystal seeds that were oriented to within +/-0.5 using the Laue buck-reflection X-ray diffraction method. The misorientation of each twist boundary was characterized using electron backscattering diffraction patterns in a scanning electron microscope. All grain boundary misorientations were determined to be within the limits defined by the Brandon criterion. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.