Twinning in SnO2-based ceramics doped with CoO and Nb2O5: morphology of multiple twins revealed by electron backscatter diffraction

Abstract

Electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) was used for the analysis of multiple cyclic twins in cassiterite (SnO2), which form during sintering of SnO2 with small additions of CoO and Nb2O5. Grain misorientation analysis has shown that about one third of all grains contain {101} twin boundaries (TBs). The majority of these grains are contact twins, whereas a small fraction of grains are multiple, mainly cyclic twins. A procedure was developed in MTEX [Bachmann, Hielscher & Schaeben (2010). Solid State Phenom. 160, 63–88] for automated identification of crystallographically different types of cyclic twins and found two main types: coplanar twins composed of three or four domains with a common [010] axis and alternating twins composed of three to seven domains oriented along the [111] axis. Both types of cyclic twins have a characteristic common origin (nucleus) of all TBs, which is positioned eccentric relative to the grain section and the cycle is closed with a shorter non-crystallographic contact between the first and the last twin domain. The morphology of cyclic twins suggests that they form by nucleation in the initial stages of grain growth. The average size of twinned grains increases with the number of twin domains indicating the influence of TBs formation on the growth of composite grains.