1. Description of polycrystalline material structures

1.1 Structure of technological materials

The properties of crystallized technological materials depend on four categories of structural parameters (figure 1 ):

• crystal structure: the arrangement of atoms in the crystal lattice ;

• phase structure: the composition and arrangement of phases according to size and shape;

• grain structure: the orientation and arrangement of crystallites according to size and shape;

• substructure: lattice defects and their distribution within the grains.