The elastic characteristics of low-angle grain boundaries in nanocrystalline films consisting of columnar grains were analyzed. A model describing low-angle boundaries between columnar nanocrystallites as an ensemble of rectangular dislocation half-loops was used to calculate the stress field and energy of such boundaries. The energy of elastic distortions in a nanocrystalline film consisting of periodically ordered columnar grains was determined as a function of the misorientation angles of the grains.

Elastic Energy of Grain Boundaries in Nanocrystalline Films Consisting of Columnar Grains. E.B.Baturin, A.L.Kolesnikova, I.A.Ovidko: Inorganic Materials, 2003, 39[4], 418-23