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Updated: May 25, 2026

Determining the Mechanical Strength of Ultra-Fine-Grained Metals
Published on: November 22, 2021
The nanostructured origin of deformation twinning
1Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
Abstract:
We have revealed the fundamental embryonic structure of deformation twins using in situ mechanical testing of magnesium single crystals in a transmission electron microscope. This structure consists of an array of twin-related laths on the scale of several nanometers. A computational model demonstrates that this structure should be a generic feature at the incipient stage of deformation twinning when there are correlated nucleation events. Our results shed light on the origin of twinning-induced plasticity and transformation toughening, critical to the development of advanced structural alloys with high strength, ductility, and toughness.
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