PREPARATION OF HIGH-STRENGTH NANOMETER SCALE TWINNED COATING AND FOIL

Very high strength single phase stainless steel coating has been prepared by magnetron sputtering onto a substrate. The coating has a unique microstructure of nanometer spaced twins that are parallel to each other and to the substrate surface. For cases where the coating and substrate do not bind strongly, the coating can be peeled off to provide foil

PREPARATION OF HIGH-STRENGTH NANOMETER SCALE TWINNED COATING AND FOIL

Very high strength single phase stainless steel coating has been prepared by magnetron sputtering onto a substrate. The coating has a unique microstructure of nanometer spaced twins that are parallel to each other and to the substrate surface. For cases where the coating and substrate do not bind strongly, the coating can be peeled off to provide foil

Thermal stability of self-supported metallic multi-layered thin films.

The morphological stability and strength retention following elevated temperature exposure or thermal cycling will be crucial in exploiting the extremely high strengths of nanolayered materials in advanced engineering applications. The effects of elevated temperature ({le} 800 C) vacuum annealing on the morphological stability and mechanical properties of sputter deposited Cu-Nb multilayers with 75 nm bilayer period are reported here. Even after 800 C/ 1 hour anneal, the continuity of the layered structure is maintained and the bilayer periods are unchanged. The in-plane grain sizes in both Cu and Nb coarsened but were anchored at grooved boundaries preventing further growth. For a constant bilayer period, the effect of increasing the in-plane grain size on the multilayer hardness is found to be insignificant. After annealing, the layers are observed to be offset by shear along a vertical plane at the triple point junctions that have equilibrium groove angles aligned in a zig-zag pattern. A new mechanism is proposed for the evolution of this 'anchored' structure that is resistant to further morphological instability

Room-temperature dislocation climb in copper-niobium interfaces

Using atomistic simulations, we show that dislocations climb efficiently in metallic copper-niobium interfaces through absorption and emission of vacancies in the dislocation core, as well as an associated counter diffusion of Cu atoms in the interfacial plane. The high efficiency of dislocation climb in the interface is ascribed to the high vacancy concentration of 0.05 in the interfacial plane, the low formation energy of 0.12 e V with respect to removal or insertion of Cu atoms, as well as the low kinetic barrier of 0.10 eV for vacancy migration in the interfacial Cu plane. Dislocation climb in the interface facilitates reactions of interfacial dislocations, and enables interfaces to be in the equilibrium state with respect to concentrations ofpoint defects

Damage mechanisms in nanolayered metallic composites

The strengths of metallic multilayers, composed of alternating layers o f soft metals such as Cu and Nb, approach the theoretical limit of material strengih when the bilayer periods are on the order of a few nanometers. We have investigated the damage mechanisms in these ultra-high strength nanolayered composite inaterials subjected to monotonic deformation. Large strain plastic deformation such as rooin temperature rolling does not lead to any dislocation cell structure formation within the layers indicating that the deformation and dislocation storage mechanisms in nanostructured materials are completely different from the bulk. In bulk metals, dislocation pile-ups lead to heterogeneous slip, but in nano-materials, deformation by single disloqations on closely spaced glide planes results in more homogeneously distributed slip. The implications of the high tensile strengths and hoinogencous slip on the fatigue properties of nanolayered materials are also discussed