Imperfect oriented attachment of nanoparticles over specific surfaces was rationalized to cause accretion and defects for the rutile condensates. Analytical electron microscopy indicated that rutile nanoparticles prepared by Nd:YAG laser ablation of Ti targets had well-developed {110} and {011} surfaces with steps. These surfaces were beneficial to {∼110} and {∼011} vicinal attachment, causing, respectively, edge dislocations and planar defects, i.e., fault and twin for rutile crystal. The {011}-interface relaxation, by shearing along (011) directions, accounts for a rather high density of edge dislocations near the planar defects thus formed. Brownian motion may proceed above a critical temperature for anchorage release at the interface of imperfect attached nanoparticles until an epitaxial relationship was reached.

Imperfect Oriented Attachment: Accretion and Defect Generation of Nanosize Rutile Condensates. Tsai, M.H., Chen, S.Y., Shen, P.: Nano Letters, 2004, 4[7], 1197-201