Shear stress-driven refreshing capability of plastic deformation in nanolayered metals
J. W. Yan, X. F. Zhu, B. Yang, and G. P. Zhang
Accepted
Severely-localized deformation within shear bands (SBs) can occur much easily in a metal with nanoscale microstructures, such as nano-grained and nanolayered materials. Based on atomic-scale observations, here we show that such locally large deformation (the continuous thinning of the layers) within the indentation-induced SBs of the Cu/Au nanolayers is essentially attributed to the large shear stress component along the interface, which can refresh the capability of the interface to absorb incoming dislocations through unlocking the product of the dislocation-interface reaction. The results have implications for understanding the interface-mediated mechanisms of plastic deformation and for engineering application of severe plastic deformation process of metals at nanoscales.