Title: Interface mediated mechanisms of plastic strain recovery in AgCu alloy,
Abstract: Through the combination of transmission electron microscopy analysis of the
deformed microstructure and molecular dynamics computer simulations of the
deformation processes, the mechanisms of plastic strain recovery in bulk AgCu
eutectic with either incoherent twin or cube-on-cube interfaces between the Ag
and Cu layers and a bilayer thickness of 500 nm have been revealed. The
character of the incoherent twin interfaces changed uniquely after dynamic
compressive loading for samples that exhibited plastic strain recovery and was
found to drive the recovery, which is due to dislocation retraction and
rearrangement of the interfaces. The magnitude of the recovery decreased with
increasing strain as dislocation tangles and dislocation cell structures
formed. No change in the orientation relationship was found at cube-on-cube
interfaces and these exhibited a lesser amount of plastic strain recovery in
the simulations and none experimentally in samples with larger layer
thicknesses with predominantly cube-on-cube interfaces. Molecular dynamics
computer simulations verified the importance of the change in the incoherent
twin interface structure as the driving force for dislocation annihilation at
the interfaces and the plastic strain recovery.