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Three-dimensional visualization of dislocation-precipitate interactions in a Al–4Mg–0.3Sc alloy using weak-beam dark-field electron tomography

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Abstract

Weak-beam dark-field images of dislocations interacting with particles acquired over a large angular range were used to reconstruct tomograms, which were then used as the basis to construct a three-dimensional (3D) model of the dislocation structure. These capabilities facilitate viewing the dislocation structure from different directions, recovering the information lost in the electron beam direction. Coupling these capabilities and a method to include the specimen coordinate system within them with conventional dislocation analysis enables a full characterization of the dislocation microstructure in three dimensions. This approach is used to understand the 3D nature of the interaction of dislocations and a twist boundary with Al3Sc particles in an Al–Mg–Sc alloy.

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Acknowledgments

The electron microscopy was performed at the Center for Microanalysis of Materials in the Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory, University of Illinois. EM3D was developed by the McMahan Lab, Stanford University School of Medicine, and Chimera by the Resource for Biocomputing, Visualization, and Informatics at the University of California, San Francisco. G.S. Liu is grateful to Mr. Thomas Goddard at UCSF for fruitful discussions and correspondence and Dr. Martha Briceno for provision of gold foils. This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences under contract DE-FG02-07ER46443.

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  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana−Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, 61801, USA

    G.S. Liu & I.M. Robertson

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  1. G.S. Liu
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  2. I.M. Robertson
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Correspondence to I.M. Robertson.

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Liu, G., Robertson, I. Three-dimensional visualization of dislocation-precipitate interactions in a Al–4Mg–0.3Sc alloy using weak-beam dark-field electron tomography. Journal of Materials Research 26, 514–522 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2010.83

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