Incoherent structural relaxation of fivefold twinned nanowires

Boron carbide nanowires with a fivefold twinned structure have been shown to have regular spaced microtwin lamellas localized in one of the crystalline segments. This defect structure is interpreted as incoherent structural relaxation to relieve the angular excess. A structural model, in terms of a disclination core surrounded by a small angle grain boundary with an intersecting microtwin lamella pair structure, has been proposed and strain analyses suggest it could be a common phenomena for nanowires with large angular mismatch and small twinning formation energy. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics.