Helium Nanobubbles Enhance Superelasticity and Retard Shear Localization in Small-Volume Shape Memory Alloy

The intriguing phenomenon of metal superelasticity relies on stress-induced martensitic transformation (SIMT), which is well-known to be governed by developing cooperative strain accommodation at multiple length scales. It is therefore scientifically interesting to see what happens when this natural length scale hierarchy is disrupted. One method is producing pillars that confine the sample volume to micrometer length scale. Here we apply yet another intervention, helium nanobubbles injection, which produces porosity on the order of several nanometers. While the pillar confinement suppresses superelasticity, we found the dispersion of 5-10 nm helium nanobubbles do the opposite of promoting superelasticity in a Ni_53.5Fe_19.5Ga₂₇ shape memory alloy. The role of helium nanobubbles in modulating the competition between ordinary dislocation slip plasticity and SIMT is discussed.