The influence of thermomechanical treatment pathways on texture and mechanical properties in ARB Cu/Nb nanolaminates

Accumulative roll-bonded Cu/Nb nanolaminates (ARB Cu/Nb) possess high strength, thermal stability, and radiation tolerance arising from a high content of heterophase interfaces at fine layer thicknesses. These properties can be tailored by processing parameters used in the ARB Cu/Nb fabrication process, in which layer thickness, thermal history, and strain pathway determine the interface types and resultant properties found in the material. In this work, we subject ARB Cu/Nb to annealing, and then two different rolling pathways – one where rolling direction is held constant (longitudinal rolling, or LR), and one where rolling direction is rotated by 90° and held constant thereafter (cross rolling, or CR). Rolling is performed on ARB Cu/Nb over a targeted range of layer thicknesses from 193 to 25 nm and resultant bulk textures measured by neutron diffraction are correlated with mechanical properties measured by miniaturized tensile tests. The annealing procedure sharpens texture in both phases. We find that Cu mostly develops the same texture in LR and CR. In contrast, Nb develops a distinct texture along the CR pathway that is distinct from the LR texture. The composite texture of Cu/Nb is thus distinct between LR and CR pathways. This difference in texture development between Cu and Nb as a function of strain after change in rolling direction demonstrates the viability for deliberate pairing of Cu LR and Nb CR textures at a desired layer thickness. For mechanical properties, we find that differences in texture do not result in yield or flow stress differences above a layer thickness of 25 nm. Below a layer thickness of 25 nm, despite similar Taylor factors, yield and flow stress and are significantly different. This indicates texture only influences mechanical behavior at low layer thickness, where interface structure dominates mechanical properties.