On the importance of prismatic/basal interfaces in the growth of (-1012) twins in hexagonal close-packed crystals

The growth process of of (-1012) twins is studied in Magnesium using atomistic simulations. Two twin seeds are considered and both cases, a specific interface, which places face-to-face prismatic and basal planes, plays an important role. This interface has a low energy corresponding to a cusp in the orientation-dependent interface energy of a twinned bicrystal. This interface appears in several published twin structures and for instance accommodates the large deviations of twin interfaces from (-1012) planes reported recently [Zhang et al., Scr. Mater. 67 (2012) 862].