The dissociation of (a+c) misfit dislocations at the InGaN/GaN interface

(a+c) dislocations in hexagonal materials are typically observed to be dissociated into partial dislocations. Edge (a+c) dislocations are introduced into (0001) nitride semiconductor layers by the process of plastic relaxation. As there is an increasing interest in obtaining relaxed InGaN buffer layers for the deposition of high In content structures, the study of the dissociation mechanism of misfit (a+c) dislocations laying at the InGaN/GaN interface is then crucial for understanding their nucleation and glide mechanisms. In the case of the presented plastically relaxed InGaN layers deposited on GaN substrates we observe a trigonal network of (a+c) dislocations extending at the interface with a rotation of 3 degrees from directions. High resolution microscopy studies show that these dislocations are dissociated into two Frank-Shockley 1/6 partial dislocations with the I1 BSF spreading between them. Atomistic simulations of a dissociated edge (a+c) dislocation revealed a 3/5 atom ring structure for the cores of both partial dislocations. The observed separation between two partial dislocations must result from the climb of at least one of the dislocations during the dissociation process, possibly induced by the mismatch stress in the InGaN layer.Comment: This is a submitted version of the manuscript published in Journal of Microscop

A comparison of warm and combined warm and low temperature processing routes for the equal-channel angular pressing of pure titanium.

Two different processing routes were used to investigate the microstructure and strength of commercial purity (CP) titanium of grade 4 processed by equal-channel angular pressing (ECAP). In the combined temperature (CT) route the specimens were pressed at 723 K in the first pass and at 373 K in the second pass but in the warm temperature (WT) route the specimens were pressed through two passes at 723 K. Both routes led to an inhomogeneous microstructure with average grain sizes of ~1.5 and ~1.7 um after the CT and WT routes, respectively. Both routes gave improved strengthening and higher hardness but the CT route with a lower temperature step gave the highest ultimate tensile strength of ~790 MPa. The inclusion of a lower temperature processing step may be important for optimizing the strength of CP Ti for use in medical implants

Osmoregulators proline and glycine betaine counteract salinity stress in canola

Salt inundation leads to increased salinization of arable land in many arid and semi-arid regions. Until genetic solutions are found farmers and growers must either abandon salt-affected fields or use agronomic treatments that alleviate salt stress symptoms. Here, field experiments were carried out to study the effect of the osmoregulators proline at 200 mg L-1 and glycine betaine at 400 mg L-1 in counteracting the harmful effect of soil salinity stress on canola plants grown in Egypt. We assessed growth characteristics, yield and biochemical constituents. Results show first that all growth characters decreased with increasing salinity stress but applied osmoregulators alleviated these negative effects. Second, salinity stress decreased photosynthetic pigments, K and P contents, whilst increasing proline, soluble sugars, ascorbic acid, Na and Cl contents. Third, application of osmoregulators without salt stress increased photosynthetic pigments, proline, soluble sugars, N, K and P contents whilst decreasing Na and Cl contents. It is concluded that the exogenously applied osmoregulators glycine betaine and proline can fully or partially counteract the harmful effect of salinity stress on growth and yield of canola.© INRA and Springer-Verlag, France 2012

Ultrafine grained plates of Al-Mg-Si alloy obtained by Incremental Equal Channel Angular Pressing : microstructure and mechanical properties

In this study, an Al-Mg-Si alloy was processed using via Incremental Equal Channel Angular Pressing (I-ECAP) in order to obtain homogenous, ultrafine grained plates with low anisotropy of the mechanical properties. This was the first attempt to process an Al-Mg-Si alloy using this technique. Samples in the form of 3 mm-thick square plates were subjected to I-ECAP with the 90˚ rotation around the axis normal to the surface of the plate between passes. Samples were investigated first in their initial state, then after a single pass of I-ECAP and finally after four such passes. Analyses of the microstructure and mechanical properties demonstrated that the I-ECAP method can be successfully applied in Al-Mg-Si alloys. The average grain size decreased from 15 - 19 µm in the initial state to below 1 µm after four I-ECAP passes. The fraction of high angle grain boundaries in the sample subjected to four I-ECAP passes lay within 53-57 % depending on the examined plane. The mechanism of grain refinement in Al-Mg-Si alloy was found to be distinctly different from that in pure aluminium with the grain rotation being more prominent than the grain subdivision, which was attributed to lower stacking fault energy and the reduced mobility of dislocations in the alloy. The ultimate tensile strength increased more than twice, whereas the yield strength - more than threefold. Additionally, the plates processed by I-ECAP exhibited low anisotropy of mechanical properties (in plane and across the thickness) in comparison to other SPD processing methods, which makes them attractive for further processing and applications

Dislocation Substructure Evolution during Hydrostatic Extrusion of Al-Mg-Si Alloy

Hydrostatic extrusion is a technique which allows to produce rods with ultrafine grains and unexpectedly enhanced mechanical properties caused by grain refinement. However, the mechanism of such a refinement is not fully understood at this stage. 6xxx aluminium alloys series are usually processed by extrusion. In this study, commercial 6082 aluminium alloy was extruded at ambient temperature in a cooled die in two stages to the true strain of ε =3.2. Such a processing results in a not fully refined microstructure which allows to study different stages of grain refinement. The texture, dislocation substructures and grain refinement were investigated using electron backscatter diffraction and transmission electron microscopy techniques. The results revealed that two main texture components are present in the extruded rods - ⟨111⟩ fiber texture and ⟨001⟩ recrystallized grains. Transmission electron microscopy inspection revealed dislocation structures that can be associated with different stages of plastic deformation according to the low energy dislocation structures hypothesis proposed by Kuhlmann-Wilsdorf