Papers by Keyword: In Situ Annealing

Abstract: In the current study the nucleation of Cube grains during recrystallization in a commercial Al-Fe-Si alloy was investigated by in-situ and ex-situ annealing experiments at different temperatures. Both methods confirm that the Cube grains can be nucleated during RX both at large deformed Cube bands and other locations. During annealing only about one third of the Cube nuclei from these other locations developed into Cube oriented recrystallized grains owing to an unfavorable growth environment. Such nuclei needed also a longer incubation time due to their small size compared to nuclei formed at large Cube bands which can form nuclei very fast owing to the well-developed substructure and transition zones promoting nucleation. The growth rate of all Cube nuclei was found to be strongly influenced by their environment. This effect became more pronounced with decreasing annealing temperature due to an increasing amount of recovery.

Abstract: Understanding of the mechanisms of annealing twin formation is fundamental for grain boundary engineering. In this work, the formation of annealing twins in a 304L austenitic stainless steel is examined in relation to the thermo-mechanical history. The behaviour of annealing twins of various morphologies is analysed using an in-situ annealing device and EBSD. The results confirm that there is a synergistic effect of prior strain level on annealing twin density generated during recrystallization. The higher the prior strain level, the higher the velocity of grain boundary migration and the higher the annealing twin density in the recrystallized grains. This effect decreases as the recrystallization fraction increases. The existing mathematical models (Pande's model and Gleiter's model), which were established to predict annealing twin density in the grain growth regime, can not predict this phenomenon.

Abstract: The FePt films with various thicknesses of 5 to 50 nm are deposited on Si(100) substrate without any underlayer by in-situ annealing at substrate temperature (Ts) of 620°C. A strong (001) texture of L10 FePt film is obtained and presents high perpendicular magnetic anisotropy as the film thickness increases to 30 nm. Further increasing the thickness to above 30 nm, the (111) orientation of L10 FePt is enhanced greatly, indicating that the quality of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy degrades when the FePt film is thicker than 30 nm. The single-layered FePt film with thickness of 30 nm by in-situ depositing at 620°C shows good perpendicular magnetic properties (perpendicular coercivity of 14.0 kOe, saturation magnetization of 473 emu/cm3 and perpendicular squareness of 0.96, respectively), which reveal its significant potential as perpendicular magnetic recording media for high-density recording.

Abstract: In this study, K3Li2-xNb5+xO15+2x (KLN) thin films were prepared by laser-ablated a sintered ceramic target. For an optimum deposition condition, in-situ post annealing method was employed on as-deposited films. XRD measurements showed that KLN films with (310) preferred orientation were obtained on fused quartz substrate. Surface morphology studies indicated that in-situ post annealing could improve the surface quality of KLN thin films. The average transmittance of as-deposited and annealed films in the visible range was nearly 80% to 90%.

Abstract: A pure OFHC copper is subjected to severe plastic deformation (SPD) by a well defined high pressure torsion process at ambient temperature. The change in microstructure of samples deformed to different strains, up to ε=64, is investigated in-situ, during annealing at 170°C, within a scanning electron microscope. The spatial distribution of nucleation sites changes significantly with increasing strain from nucleation at triple junctions and grain boundaries to a random distribution of sites for von Mises equivalent strains beyond ε=4. The resulting mean size of recrystallized grains is about 6.75 times larger than the mean microstructural size of the corresponding as-deformed state. For strains larger than ε=16 the recrystallized microstructure appears to be independent of preceding strain. A detailed investigation of the nucleation of recrystallized grains following very large strains shows that certain microstructural elements are favoured as nuclei and were particularly taken into account.

Abstract: This paper described new characterization methods and data to quantify the influence of solute atoms on grain boundary and sub-grain boundary mobilities in Al-Mn alloys with a view to their integration into recovery and recrystallization modelling. Detailed SEM measurements of grain boundary mobilities during recrystallization have been made by in-situ annealing experiments on cold deformed Al – 0.1 and 0.3wt.% Mn binary alloys. Stored energies are estimated from the sub-grain sizes and misorientations and the boundary velocities directly measured in the temperature range 200-450°C. It is shown that in many cases good agreement with the Cahn, Lücke, Stüwe model for solute drag is obtained, e.g. the activation energies are intermediate between those of boundary and volume solute diffusion. Some particular cases of rapid growth occur in Al-0.1%Mn indicating boundary breakaway from solute clouds. A complementary study of sub-grain boundary mobilities has started on the same alloys; in this case the average mobilities are estimated from FEG-SEM growth data for the average sub-grain size for temperatures in the range 150-300°C. The results are compared with some previous data on Al-Si and show similar rates.

Abstract: Conventional coarse grained (CG) commercial pure (CP) Ti Grade 2 was studied after cold rolling (CR) at room temperature, and after equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) at 450° C followed by CR, by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) methods. CR of the CG material leads to a microstructure showing initially twins with (0112) type and later subgrains separated by lowangle grain boundaries. CR carried out after ECAP yields the fragmentation of fine grains (300 – 800 nm) mostly bounded by high-angle boundaries into elongated subgrains (~ 100 nm). It was shown with in-situ annealing experiments in the TEM that this microstructure is thermally stable up to a temperature of 450° C. Tensile tests showed that the combination of ECAP with CR has the potential to produce at the same time high strength (941 MPa) and high ductility (16.7%).

Abstract: Granular C/Co/C films have been prepared by magnetron sputtering from C and Co onto glass substrates at room temperature and subsequent in situ annealing. C and Co targets use an RF and DC facing deposition mode respectively. The structural and magnetic properties of films at room temperature were investigated as functions of Co layer thickness, C layer thickness and annealing temperature. X-ray diffraction (XRD) shows the majority Co nanograins are formed as the hexagonal-close-packed (hcp) structure annealing at 400 °C. Vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) measurements indicate that the magnetic moment lies well in the film plane. Hc reaches maximum near 20 nm-thick Co layer and 30 nm-thick C layer with annealing temperature of 400 °C for 30 min. Remanent squareness (S) close to 1 was achieved for the film in which C layer thickness is 45 nm. Scanning probe microscope (SPM) was used to scan surface morphology and magnetic domain structures. The average grain size varies from 10 nm to 15 nm after annealing.

Abstract: The migration rates (V) of “random” high angle grain boundaries (HAGB) during annealing of a cold deformed (e=1.3) high purity Al-0.1wt% Mn alloy were determined using a combination of in-situ annealing and EBSD in the SEM at temperatures between 200 and 330°C. The SEM heating stage used for these experiments is described and results on the local recrystallization kinetics of the Al-Mn alloy are presented. For this, the local stored energies (P) were determined by subgrain size and misorientation analyses to give the boundary mobilities (M) through the standard V = M.P equation. The solute drag “force” was analysed with the atomistic model of Lücke and Stüwe (1971) for a “loaded” boundary and used to estimate the diffusion rates in the above temperature range. The activation energies for boundary migration were found to be consistent with those of solute atoms moving behind the grain boundary, i.e. intermediate between the values for bulk and boundary diffusion of Mn.