The observation of a deformation twin formed by a recently proposed self-thickening, cross-slip twinning mechanism was reported. This observation confirmed one more twinning mechanism, in addition to those reported before, in nanocrystalline face-centered-cubic metals. In this mechanism, once the first Shockley partial was emitted from a grain boundary, and cross slips onto another slip plane, a deformation twin could nucleate and grow in both the primary and cross-slip planes without requiring the nucleation of additional Shockley partials from the grain boundary.

Deformation Twin Formed by Self-Thickening, Cross-Slip Mechanism in Nanocrystalline Ni. X.L.Wu, J.Narayan, Y.T.Zhu: Applied Physics Letters, 2008, 93[3], 031910