Читать книгу Engineering Physics of High-Temperature Materials - Nirmal K. Sinha - Страница 51

An individual crystal or grain in the solid phase consists of atoms aligned in space in definite patterns over long distances until it impinges on the border of another crystal. In reality, solids are not perfect. There are many different kinds of imperfections within a solid that play an important, and often determining, role in the properties of the material. Crystal imperfections thus play an important role in materials science and its use across disciplines.

Understanding imperfections and their impact on materials' properties is extraordinarily complex and dependent on the system under question. Here, we strive only to give a brief overview of some high‐level key features that will enable us to understand aspects presented later in this text.