Textures in Ceramics

The texture is defined as the orientation distribution of the crystallites in a polycrystalline material.This definition is the same for all kinds of materials. Also the motivation for texture studies is thesame in all materials i.e. the formation of textures by anisotropic solid state process and the influenceof textures on anisotropic physical or technological properties. Nevertheless, there are some differencesin detail between texture analysis in metals and ceramics. These are mainly due to the more complexnature of diffraction diagrams of ceramics as compared to those of the basic metals. The aggravationsof texture analysis in ceramics can, however, be overcome by modern experimental techniques e.g. byusing a position sensitive detector. Texture analysis in ceramics has also been carried out bymicroscopical methods. The so obtained “shape texture” is related to the crystallographic texture bya “habitus” function. The particular conditions for texture analysis in cermics are very similar to thoseencountered in geological materials.