Shear response of Σ3{112} twin boundaries in face-centered-cubic metals

Molecular statics and dynamics simulations were used to study the mechanisms of sliding and migration of Sigma 3{112} incoherent twin boundaries (ITBs) under applied shear acting in the boundary in the face-centered-cubic (fcc) metals, Ag, Cu, Pd, and Al, of varying stacking fault energies. These studies revealed that (i) ITBs can dissociate into two phase boundaries (PBs), bounding the hexagonal 9R phase, that contain different arrays of partial dislocations; (ii) the separation distance between the two PBs scales inversely with increasing stacking fault energy; (iii) for fcc metals with low stacking fault energy, one of the two PBs migrates through the collective glide of partials, referred to as the phase-boundary-migration (PBM) mechanism; (iv) for metals with high stacking energy, ITBs experience a coupled motion (migration and sliding) through the glide of interface disconnections, referred to as the interface-disconnection-glide (IDG) mechanism.