Stress-induced amorphization promotes grain boundary sliding in olivine
Stress-induced amorphization has recently attracted attention as a potential deformation mechanism in ceramics, semi-conductors or minerals. Its activation is promoted when conventional plasticity, e.g. driven by dislocations, is inhibited. However, the mechanisms underlying this phenomenon are still unclear. Based on quantitative in situ TEM tensile testing of small-sized olivine bi-crystals, we demonstrate that stress-induced amorphization and grain boundary sliding can be activated under high stresses at room temperature in specimens with high angle grain boundaries. Low angle grain boundaries are less prone to this phenomenon. Varying the iron content in olivine demonstrates that iron inhibits amorphization and, consequently, promotes brittle failure. This contrast with the accepted view that iron promotes ductility but at high temperatures. These findings coming from natural minerals provide a novel approach regarding the control of the mechanical properties of hard materials at low temperatures.
Authors
- D. Schryvers (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9242-7375)
- Karine Gouriet (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3148-8849)
- Sanae Koizumi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4680-2482)
- Nicolas Gauquelin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5555-7055)
- Hosni Idrissi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1043-5409)
- Thomas Pardoen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0569-9466)
- Laurent Delannay (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7050-3787)
- Philippe Carrez (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1295-9377)
- Patrick Cordier (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1883-2994)
- Andrey Orekhov (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7517-5484)
- Ankush Kashiwar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7004-9086)
- Jean Furstoss
- Paul Baral (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8586-0733)
- Caroline Bollinger (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2309-5260)
- Ihtasham Ul Haq
Institutions
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (FR)
- École Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Lille (FR)
- University of Antwerp (BE)
- Université Fédérale de Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées (FR)
- Institut Universitaire de France (FR)
- Université de Lille (FR)
- Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement (FR)
- Association for the Development of Earthquake Prediction (JP)
- Walloon Excellence in Lifesciences and Biotechnology (BE)
- Unité Matériaux et Transformations (FR)
- The University of Tokyo (JP)
- UCLouvain (BE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Acta Materialia
- Published
- 2025-11-05
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2025.121697
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- Advanced ceramic materials synthesis
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.73