Grain boundary facets which formed at the intersection between a grain boundary and a free surface in diffusion-bonded  = 3 <011> bi-crystals, during prolonged annealing, were studied. It was shown that the observed faceting had the same qualitative character as that in the  = 3 <011> grain boundaries of Cu. The energy of an incoherent  = 3 grain boundary (210mJ/m2) was deduced from the dihedral angle of the thermal groove, and from extrapolations of published data on the surface tension of Ag. The facet geometry was analyzed in terms of computer simulation data on the inclination dependence of the energy of  = 3 grain boundaries in Cu.

A.I.Barg, E.Rabkin, W.Gust: Acta Metallurgica et Materialia, 1995, 43[11], 4067-74