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Thermal stability of highly nanotwinned copper: The role of grain boundaries and texture

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Abstract

To study the effect of nanotwins on thermal stability, a comprehensive characterization study was performed on two types of ultrafine grained (UFG) copper samples, with and without nanotwins. The two samples were sequentially heat-treated at elevated temperatures, and the grain size, grain boundary character, and texture were characterized after each heat treatment. The as-prepared nanotwinned (nt) copper foil had an average columnar grain size of ≈700 nm with a high density of coherent twin boundaries (CTBs) (twin thickness, ≈40 nm), which remained stable up to 300 °C. In contrast, the other UFG sample had few CTBs, and rapid grain growth was observed at 200 °C. The thermal stability of nt copper is discussed with respect to the presence of the low energy nanotwins, triple junctions between the twins and columnar grains, texture and grain growth.

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Acknowledgments

This work was performed under the auspices of NSF Grant No. NSF-DMR-0955338. Sample characterization and preparation were partly carried out with the support of the Karlsruhe Nano Micro Facility, a Helmholtz Research Infrastructure at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. The authors would like to thank Dr. Troy Barbee at LLNL for preliminary samples and helpful discussions regarding sample synthesis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, 90089, USA

    Yifu Zhao, Timothy Allen Furnish, Michael Ernest Kassner & Andrea Maria Hodge

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  1. Yifu Zhao
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  2. Timothy Allen Furnish
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  3. Michael Ernest Kassner
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  4. Andrea Maria Hodge
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Correspondence to Andrea Maria Hodge.

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Zhao, Y., Allen Furnish, T., Ernest Kassner, M. et al. Thermal stability of highly nanotwinned copper: The role of grain boundaries and texture. Journal of Materials Research 27, 3049–3057 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2012.376

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