Abstract
Nanocrystalline Cu-Ta alloy films were deposited on glass slides by magnetron sputtering. Microstructure characterization proved that most of the tantalum atoms are segregated in the grain boundaries. Nanoindentation creep measurements were performed on it to uncover the stability mechanism of grain boundary segregation on nanocrystalline materials. It is found that segregation can effectively slow down the creep strain rate and the grain boundary activities. The suppressed grain boundary activities endow the alloy with a stable microstructure during plastic deformation and annealing.
Highlights
Since the pioneering work of Gleiter [1], nanocrystalline (NC) materials have received enormous attention in the past decades [2]-[8]
The grain size of NC Cu and Cu-Ta alloy were both calculated by the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of (111) diffraction peak using Scherrer’s formula
The microstructure of the Cu and Cu-Ta alloy were characterized using Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observation, and the corresponding images were shown in Figure 2(a) and Figure 2(b)
Summary
Since the pioneering work of Gleiter [1], nanocrystalline (NC) materials have received enormous attention in the past decades [2]-[8]. NC materials of interest for both fundamental study and engineering application are recognized as substantially out of equilibrium and undergo rapid evolution to coarser structures even at modest temperatures [14] [15] [16]. The coarsening tendencies of NC materials are related to the intensive activities of GB, such as GB sliding and GB migration [14]-[20] These GB activities are necessary for improving the plastic deformation [21] [22] [23] [24] [25], we have to cease it for stabilizing the structure and maintaining the superior characteristics of NC materials. The corresponding mechanism and GB activities are investigated by nanoindentation creep experiment
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