MARTENSITIC GROWTH IN ZRO2-AN INSITU, SMALL PARTICLE, TEM STUDY OF A SINGLE-INTERFACE TRANSFORMATION

An in situ TEM experiment on martensitic growth was performed using submicron ZrO2 particles of a square-platelet shape. The transformation was between the orthorhombic and the monoclinic phases and involved a simple shear plus a dilatation in the shear plane. The o/m interface propagated at a speed of 2 nm/s, while maintaining a sharp habit plane which was stepped on the unit cell scale. The average inclination of this stepped interface obeyed the invariant plane strain condition. While no long-range stresses were present, dislocation-like line contrast was revealed at the steps. These results are analyzed in terms of the coherency dislocation concept. Fundamental properties, such as the interfacial energy, Peierls stress and nucleus size, have been deduced. © 1990.