Different structural origins for different sized surface pits observed on a-plane GaN film

A correlation study between the observed surface morphology using high-resolution scanning electron microscopy(HRSEM) and the observed structural imperfections using transmission electron microscopy(TEM) has been conducted for a-plane Ga N. There are three different sized asymmetric surface pits: large pit of 500 nm–2 ?m in side length, medium pit of 50 nm in side length, and small pit with side lengths of less than 5 nm, which originate from incomplete island coalescence, screw dislocation, and partial dislocation(PD), respectively. Both screw dislocation and PD can produce pits on the free surface because they have a perpendicular line tension to the surface, which must remain in balance with the surface tension. The two types of dislocation lead to distinctive pit sizes because the PD has a smaller Burgers vector component along the dislocation line than the pure screw dislocation. A pit that is produced in the island-coalescing process is much larger than those caused by dislocations because island coalescence is a kinetic process that involves large-scale mass transportation, whereas the dislocation mediates the surface in the local area. These three types of surface pits sometimes interact with one another in space. The coalescence of the island determines the surface morphology at large scales, whereas the defects affect the details.

The Effect of Surface Pit Treatment on Fretting Fatigue Crack Initiation

This paper analyses the effect of surface treatment on fretting fatigue specimen by numerical simulations using Finite Element Analysis.The processed specimen refers to artificially adding a cylindrical pit to its contact surface.Then,the contact radius between the pad and the specimen is controlled by adjusting the radius of the pit.The stress distribution and slip amplitude of the contact surface under different contact geometries are compared.The critical plane approach is used to predict the crack initiation life and to evaluate the effect of processed specimen on its fretting fatigue performance.Both crack initiation life and angle can be predicted by the critical plane approach.Ruiz parameter is used to consider the effect of contact slip.It is shown that the crack initial position is dependent on the tensile stress.For same type of model,three kinds of critical plane parameters and Ruiz method provide very similar position of crack initiation.Moreover,the improved sample is much safer than the flat-specimen.

Understanding of surface pit formation mechanism of GaN grown in MOCVD based on local thermodynamic equilibrium assumption

Frank’s theory describes that a screw dislocation will produce a pit on the surface,and has been evidenced in many material systems including GaN.However,the size of the pit calculated from the theory deviates significantly from experimental result.Through a careful observation of the variations of surface pits and local surface morphology with growing temperature and V/III ratio for c-plane GaN,we believe that Frank’s model is valid only in a small local surface area where thermodynamic equilibrium state can be assumed to stay the same.If the kinetic process is too vigorous or too slow to reach a balance,the local equilibrium range will be too small for the center and edge of the screw dislocation spiral to be kept in the same equilibrium state.When the curvature at the center of the dislocation core reaches the critical value 1/r0,at the edge of the spiral,the accelerating rate of the curvature may not fall to zero,so the pit cannot reach a stationary shape and will keep enlarging under the control of minimization of surface energy to result in a large-sized surface pit.

Quantitative Modeling for Corrosion Behavior in Complex Coupled Environment by Response Surface Methodology

Response surface methodology（RSM） is introduced into corrosion research as a tool to assess the effects of environmental factors and their interactions on corrosion behavior and establish a model for corrosion prediction in complex coupled environment（CCE）. In this study, a typical CCE, that is, the corrosion environment of pipelines in gas field is taken as an example. The effects of environmental factors such as chloride concentration, pH value and pressure as well as their interactions on critical pitting temperature（CPT） were evaluated, and a quadratic polynomial model was developed for corrosion prediction by RSM. The results showed that the model was excellent in corrosion prediction with R2= 0.9949. CPT was mostly affected by single environmental factor rather than interaction, and among the whole factors, chloride concentration was the most influential factor of CPT.

Tribological Properties of a Dendrite-reinforced Ti-based Metallic Glass Matrix Composite under Different Conditions

The tribological properties of the in-situ dendrite-reinforced metallic glass matrix composite（Ti42Zr22V14-Cu5Be17）prepared by copper mould casting were analyzed at different normal loads under the dry condition and rainwater.The results showed that the average value of the frictional coefficients and micro-hardness ascended with increasing the normal load,while the wear rate showed a trend of decline under the dry condition.The electrochemical test results showed that the surface of samples was pitting corroded in the rainwater.The matrices were corroded first.Then the dendrites were exposed,leading to the damage of the surface.Both the frictional coefficients and wear rate of the composite in the rainwater were larger than those under the dry condition,primarily owing to the corrosion of chloride ions on the worn surface.The wear mechanisms of composites were mainly adhesive wear,accompanied by the abrasive wear under the dry condition and corrosive wear in the rainwater.The composites have higher wear resistance both under the dry condition and rainwater due to the lower wear rate.