Epitaxial stress and texture in thin oxide layers grown on Fe-Al alloys

The development of internal stress and texture in the oxide scales grown on Fe-15 at.% Al (1 0 0) and (1 1 1) single crystals at 700 °C was determined in situ using synchrotron X-ray diffraction. At this low oxidation temperature oxide scale thickness as revealed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy was situated between 100 and 150 nm after 650 min oxidation. Trigonal α-Fe2O3 was found to act as a crystallographic template for the nucleation of isostructural α-Al2O3. Strain behavior during oxidation was found to be influenced by the epitaxial relationship between α-Al2O3 and α-Fe2O3.