Dislocation dynamics in nanocrystalline nickel

It is believed that the dynamics of dislocation processes during the deformation of nanocrystalline materials can only be visualized by computational simulations. Here we demonstrate that observations of dislocation processes during the deformation of nanocrystalline Ni with grain sizes as small as 10 nm can be achieved by using a combination of in situ tensile straining and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. Trapped unit lattice dislocations are observed in strained grains as small as 5 nm, but subsequent relaxation leads to dislocation recombination.