Deformation twinning was often mediated by partial dislocation activities at the twin boundary. Using molecular dynamics simulations, a new mechanism was discovered for the most commonly observed {10•2}<10•¯1> deformation twinning in Mg and other hexagonal close-packed metals. Here the twin growth involves no definable dislocations at the twin boundary, and the twin orientational relationship could be established by local atomic shuffling, directly constructing the twin lattice from the parent lattice

Atomic Shuffling Dominated Mechanism for Deformation Twinning in Magnesium. B.Li, E.Ma: Physical Review Letters, 2009, 103[3], 035503