Surface topography and energy of grain boundary triple junctions in copper tricrystals

Copper tricrystals with a common crystallographic axis 〈1 0 0〉, 〈1 1 0〉, 〈1 1 1〉 were fabricated by the Bridgman technique. Utilizing atomic force microscopy, the topography of the grain boundary triple junctions for the three crystallographic systems were investigated. The grain boundary free surface energy and the grain boundary triple line energy were determined for specific crystallographies of tricrystals.