Misfit dislocation networks at {111}metal||{111}oxide interfaces were studied using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. The experimental results were compared with simulated images of tentative atomic structures for the interface region, as deduced from lattice-statics calculations. The latter took account of the 2-dimensional misfit at the interface, which was necessary because of the high misfit and short repeat-distances at the interfaces. The calculations used simplified potentials, across the interface, which captured the essential features that had been revealed by experimental results and ab initio calculations. Trigonal networks of edge misfit locations, with Burgers vectors of 1/6<112> and a line direction of <110>, resulted from the calculations. The misfit-dislocation networks had associated strain fields in the metal. These stretched out from the interface, all along the interface, at roughly the repeat distance. The strain fields showed up in image simulations, for <110> and <112> directions, due to characteristic but subtle periodic changes in contrast and brightness as well as small displacements of spots. The experimental images for the same directions exhibited similar characteristics, but they were difficult to detect; especially along <112> in the case of the Cu/MnO interface. It was concluded that the proposed misfit-dislocation structure was present at the interfaces.

High-Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy Imaging of Misfit-Dislocation Networks at Cu-MgO and Cu-MnO Interfaces. H.B.Groen, B.J.Kooi, W.P.Vellinga, J.T.M.De Hosson: Philosophical Magazine A, 1999, 79[9], 2083-101