Defects played a key role in the determination of material properties, especially at small scales. The influence of several kinds of defects (point vacancies, line vacancies and cracks) upon the deformation and fracture characteristics of a planar copper grain boundary interface with a 45° lattice misorientation was explored using molecular dynamics simulations and the embedded-atom method. Both tensile and shear modes of interfacial separation were considered. The results showed that the crystalline defects could have a strong influence upon the interfacial behaviours. The sensitivity of the mechanical properties of the interface to a defect type could be different under tension than under shear. It was found that some defect topologies could improve certain properties (e.g. strength and fracture strain) of the bicrystal interface system.

Influence of Defects on Mechanical Properties of Bicrystal Copper Grain Boundary Interfaces. L.Wang, H.W.Zhang, X.Deng: Journal of Physics D, 2008, 41[13], 135304 (12pp)