It was shown here that the Ni/(Al2O3)Al interface exhibited reconstruction at the first monolayer on the metal side, and functioned as a transition-layer between the Ni and Al2O3 lattices. Under these conditions, the misfit dislocation could not be confirmed by drawing a Burgers circuit because the interface was incoherent. However, due to the lattice misfit, there were areas of strain concentration, and areas without strain, distributed on the interface plane. So, in order to describe this strain distribution, the concept of a dislocation network could again be used, but was re-defined to be the separation line between these 2 parts. As a result, it was found that the dislocation network appeared when the metal part was thicker than 12.4Å, and shrank as the metal film grew; resulting in an ultimate structure with a mesh size of 28.1Å.

Interface Reconstruction and Dislocation Networks for a Metal/Alumina Interface - an Atomistic Approach. Y.Long, N.X.Chen: Journal of Physics - Condensed Matter, 2008, 20[13], 135005 (7pp)