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Suppression of twinning mechanism on nanoscale: size effect in Cu–Ni–Al shape memory alloy

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Abstract

In Cu–Ni–Al shape memory alloy, we observed a significant size effect on the twinning stress, i.e. the dependency of compression stress needed for twin-variant reorientation on sample size using in situ loading of micro- and nanoscale pillars in scanning and transmission electron microscopes. With decreasing dimensions of pillars, the twinning stress sharply increases following scaling power law with an exponent approximately n = − 2/3. For very small nanopillars, the projected twinning stress is so high that the nanopillars are deformed by plastic deformation instead of twinning. Our results shed light on some of the fundamental aspects of nanoscale behaviour of shape memory alloys which is important for applications in microelectromechanical systems.

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Acknowledgements

This work has been financially supported by the Czech Science Foundation (Grant Number 14-36566G) (AdMat) and furthermore by the Project LM2015087 of the Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports. MV. would like to acknowledge financial support by the Grant SGS16/249/OHK4/3T/14. MK would like to acknowledge financial support of the ERDF in the frame of the Project No. CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/15_003/0000485.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Physics, Czech Academy of Sciences, Na Slovance 1999/2, 18221, Prague, Czech Republic

    M. Vronka, J. Manak & O. Heczko

  2. Department of Materials, Faculty of Nuclear Sciences and Physical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Trojanova 13, 120 00, Prague 2, Czech Republic

    M. Vronka & M. Karlik

  3. Department of Physics of Materials, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University, Ke Karlovu 5, 121 16, Prague 2, Czech Republic

    M. Karlik & J. Vesely

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  1. M. Vronka
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  2. M. Karlik
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Correspondence to M. Vronka.

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Vronka, M., Karlik, M., Vesely, J. et al. Suppression of twinning mechanism on nanoscale: size effect in Cu–Ni–Al shape memory alloy. J Mater Sci 54, 6586–6593 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-018-03296-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-018-03296-5

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