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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 February 2011
The growth of nanocrystalline materials has received much attention recently due to its importance in nanocrystalline thin film properties and fabrications. Research studies of this subject have so far focused on the face-centered-cubic metals. Two mechanisms, grain-rotation induced grain coalescence and curvature-driven grain-boundary migration are considered as the dominant mechanisms in the nanograin growth. In this work, we use molecular dynamics method to simulate the growth of Ni and Ni3Al alloy. We find the above mechanisms can describe the growth behavior well. A detailed comparison of the nanograin growth between the two systems is discussed in terms of grain rotation and grain sliding. We also study the temperature effect and the size effect in the nanograin growth. The tendency of twinning in the nanograin growth is discussed.