Kinked Grain Boundaries in Alumina Doped with Y ₂ O ₃

Abstract

Polycrystalline alumina specimens with and without MgO doping show smoothly curved grain boundaries after heat treatment at 1400°C indicating their rough structure. When heat‐treated at 1400° and 1500°C for 24 h after packing in an alumina–YAG powder mixture, many grain boundaries (without any liquid phase) develop kinks of large and small scales as observed by scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The addition of Y 2 O 3 at concentrations close to the solubility limit is thus shown to induce the grain boundary transition to singular structures.