Plastic deformation in nearly dislocation-free NiAl single crystals, loaded along <001>, was initiated at a well-defined temperature; as found by using an anisothermal creep test. The initiation temperature was rate-independent at low heating rates and defined a critical point.

The Critical Temperature in the Initiation of Plastic Strain in Nearly Dislocation-Free Crystals of NiAl. N.Yang, Y.Q.Sun: Scripta Materialia, 2002, 46[1], 71-5