Multiscale simulation data for demonstrating the analogy between grain boundaries and Brownian ratchets

We demonstrate that grain boundaries (GBs) behave as Brownian ratchets,
exhibiting direction-dependent mobilities and unidirectional motion under
oscillatory driving forces or cyclic thermal annealing. We observed these
phenomena for nearly all non-symmetric GBs but not for symmetric ones. Our
observations build upon molecular dynamics and phase-field crystal
simulations for a wide range of GB types and driving forces in both
bicrystal and polycrystalline microstructures. We corroborate these
simulation results through in situ experimental observations. We analyze
these results with a Markov chain model and explore the implications of GB
ratchet behavior for materials processing and microstructure tailoring.