Transmission electron microscope observations of deformed rutile (TiO2)

Transmission electron microscopy has been used to examine rutile single crystals grown by Verneuil method. Thin foils were prepared from bulk specimens by ion-bombardment thinning. Some observations were made on as-grown samples: the density of dislocations is very low and their Burgers vector is [001]. Samples deformed by compression were also studied. Most of the dislocations observed in the active {101} 〈101〉 systems form long linear arrays of edge character, commonly arranged in dipoles. Some interactions between differents slip systems were also observed. No easy evidence was found for a dissociation of the edge dislocations.