Crystallographic texture in Al2O3–ZrO2 (Y2O3) directionally solidified eutectics

Directionally solidified Al2O3-based eutectics are in situ composites grown from the melt. The directional nature of the solidification process makes these materials highly anisotropic and therefore the measurement and quantification of their crystallographic texture is necessary to understand their physical properties. We studied the texture of Al2O3–ZrO2 (12 mol% Y2O3) eutectic rods by means of X-ray and electron backscattering diffraction. The phases grow according to the relationship {1 0 1¯ 2}Al2O3//{1 1 0}ZrO2 and Al2O3 is oriented with its c-axis approximately parallel to the growth direction. We observed that the c-axis orientation is not constant throughout the sample, but instead changes according to the distance from the growth axis. The c-axis orientation spread was found to be 10°. This spread is a consequence of the curvature of the liquid–solid interface during solidification, whose shape we reconstructed using EBSD data.