Abstract
Abstract Nanocrystalline nickel produced by pulsed electrolysis was heat-treated to produce grain sizes from nanoscale to microscale. A special polish allowed to image the specimen with an atomic force microscope (AFM) down to a grain size of 30 nm. Micro- and instrumented nanohardness of these specimens were examined. A NI-AFM (Nanoindenting AFM) was used to measure the interaction between grain boundaries and dislocations. Nanoindentation was performed always in the center of the grains. When the size of the indent was kept constant (constant strain) it could be shown that the hardness scales with the dislocation density within the grains. However, when the size of the indent approached the grain size, the plastic zone spread over several grains and a decrease in hardness was observed. In addition, with deceasing grain size, grain boundary sliding was observed even at room temperature.
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