Lattice distortion and thermal stability of nano-crystalline copper

Molecular dynamics simulations of high temperature annealing of copper bicrystals with varying grain sizes in nano-meter range have been carried out. Planar 〈1 1 1〉-tilt CSL grain boundaries are set. An EAM potential of FS type is used for calculating inter-atomic forces in copper. For comparison, similar simulations for aluminum and tungsten have been conducted. The results show that in the copper bicrystals of present grain boundary geometry, mismatch between the {1 1 1} planes of the neighboring grains occurs at the grain boundary, resulting in a general shear lattice distortion within the grains. The shear strain is inversely proportional to the grain size. The energy of such mismatched grain boundary is found lower than that of the mismatch-free grain boundary. For aluminum such kind of mismatch is much smaller, and for tungsten no such mismatch appears. The nano-sized copper bicrystals with grains smaller than a critical size are found instable at high temperature, where grain boundary motion and atomistic reconstruction lead to annihilation of the grain boundaries after an incubation time.