The effect of specimen thickness on fracture toughness and fracture mechanism was investigated in bulk columnar-grained Cu with preferentially oriented nanoscale growth twins. Below a critical specimen thickness of ∼1.0 mm, plane stress state prevailed ahead of the crack tip and the fracture initiation toughness J C decreased with decreasing thickness. Above the critical thickness, J C decreased with increasing thickness until approaching an intrinsic thickness-independent value when the crack front was mainly under plane strain condition. Under plane strain condition, threading dislocations were majorly activated to glide along the nanotwin channels and to produce severe stress concentrations when they piled-up against grain boundaries (GBs). As a result, intergranular cracking mediated the failure of the nanotwinned Cu. On the contrary, under plane stress condition, dislocations slipping-transfer across twin boundaries (TBs) or partial dislocations gliding at TBs were activated to accommodate the plastic deformation. Consequently, stress intensification at GBs was plastically relaxed through enhanced detwinning and shear banding, which suppressed the intergranular fracture and promoted transgranular shear fracture.

This article is a review of research on nanostructured high-entropy alloys with emphasis on those made by the severe plastic deformation methods of mechanical alloying and high-pressure torsion. An example of thin film refractory metal alloys made by magnetron sputtering is also presented. The article will begin with a discussion of the seminal research of B.S. Murty and co-workers who first produced nanocrystalline high-entropy alloys by mechanical alloying of powders. This will be followed by a listing of research, in mostly chronological order, of mainly 3d transition metal alloys made nanocrystalline by mechanical alloying. Research on the well-studied Cantor alloy, from the literature and the author’s laboratory will be presented. The author’s and co-worker’s research on a low-density high-entropy alloy with single-phase fcc or hcp structure and an extremely high strength (hardness)-to-weight ratio will be described.

In this work, the influence of Al-solutes on the mechanical behavior of Cu–AlX solid solutions has been studied using indentation strain rate jump tests for single crystalline and ultrafine-grained (UFG) microstructures from high pressure torsion (HPT) processing. Al-solutes in Cu classically lead to a solid solution strengthening, coupled with a decrease in stacking fault energy, which influences also the grain size after HPT processing. For all alloys, a higher hardness is found at lower indentation depths, which can be nicely described by a modified Nix/Gao model down to 100 nm indentation depth. Among the single crystals, the largest size effects are found for the higher solute contents, indicating a stronger work hardening at small length scales for the solid solutions. The dilute UFG solid solutions showed a strong softening after a strain rate reduction test, with a pronounced transient region. Cu–Al15 is, however, quite stable, showing abrupt changes in hardness without strong transients. This indicates that solute solution strengthening does not only influence the indentation size effect and structure formation during HPT processing but also stabilizes the grain structure during subsequent deformation.

The present status of R&D for various types of solar cells is presented by overviewing research and development projects for solar cells in Japan as the PV R&D Project Leader of the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) and the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST). Developments of high-efficiency solar cells such as 44.4% (under concentration) and 37.9% (under 1-sun) InGaP/GaAs/InGaAs 3-junction solar cells by Sharp, 26.6% crystalline Si heterojunction back-contact (HBC) solar cells by Kaneka, 22.3% CIGS solar cells by Solar Frontier have been demonstrated under the NEDO PV R&D Project. 15.0% efficiency has also been attained with 1 cm2 perovskite solar cell by NIMS under the JST Project. This article also presents analytical results for efficiency potential of high-efficiency solar cells based on external radiative efficiency (ERE), open-circuit voltage loss and fill factor loss. Crystalline Si solar cells, GaAs, III–V compound 3-junction and 5-junction, CIGSe, and CdTe solar cells have efficiency potential of 28.5%, 29.7%, 42%, 43%, 26.5%, and 26.5% under 1-sun condition, respectively, by improvements in ERE.

Selective laser melting, a laser-based additive manufacturing process, can manufacture components with good geometrical integrity. Application of the selective laser melting process for serial production is subject to its reliability on mechanical properties, especially on fatigue behavior, when it is required to be applied for dynamic applications. This study focuses on microstructural, quasistatic, high cycle fatigue (HCF), and very high cycle fatigue (VHCF) mechanisms of aluminum alloys manufactured by selective laser melting. Manufacturing of hybrid structures by selective laser melting process is also investigated. Microstructural features were investigated for process-induced effects and the corresponding influence on quasistatic and fatigue properties. The microstructural features can be controlled in the selective laser melting process for required properties. Joining strengths in hybrid structures can be improved by post process heat-treatments. Material constants in different fatigue regions were determined, and higher fatigue strength of hybrid alloys was achieved in HCF as well as VHCF regimes.

This paper presents the high temperature yield and fatigue strength as well as thermophysical properties of two polycrystalline wrought γ/γ′ Co-base superalloys developed for application in a temperature regime above 700 °C. The alloys CoWAlloy1 (Co42Ni32Cr12Al6W3Ti2.5Ta1.5 + Si,C,B,Zr,Hf) and CoWAlloy2 (Co41Ni32Cr12Al9W5 + Ti,Ta,Si,C,B,Zr,Hf) exhibited solidus temperatures of 1070 °C and 1030 °C, respectively, and a γ′ fraction of about 50%. CoWAlloy2 displayed a rather high Young’s modulus of 250 GPa. The two Co-base superalloys showed a good high temperature strength exceeding Ni-base disc alloys U720Li and Waspaloy at temperatures above 800 °C. When comparing the yield strength from tensile and compression tests, no asymmetry could be found. The low-cycle fatigue life of CoWAlloy2 at a total strain amplitude of 0.5% is similar to that of U720Li and Waspaloy (about 370 cycles, R = −1). During long-term aging for 1024 h at 750 °C, no additional phases were formed and the room temperature hardness barely changed.

The growth behavior of epitaxial transition metal oxides with the perovskite structure often shows discrepancies with models established for semiconductor and metal films. The reason is rooted in the versatility of such octahedral framework structures to accommodate the interfacial dissimilarity and the participation of strongly coupled electron and lattice degrees of freedom in strain relaxation mechanisms. Here, we revisit the behavior of the prototypic La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 manganite under specific growth conditions, enabling the isolation of pure octahedral tilting and misfit dislocation mechanisms in the same material. Analysis of the observed behavior provides insights into the competition between octahedral tilting and classical relaxation mechanisms by misfit dislocations or domain formation, and the effect of additional contributions to dissimilarity such as symmetry mismatch and polar discontinuities. Moreover, given the intimate association between misfit relaxation and self-organization mechanisms, opportunities and limitations of the observed behavior in the generation of novel bottom-up functional nanostructures is also addressed.

Oxygen is known to have a significant impact on the strength of Ti alloys, whereas it can also reduce the ductility substantially. Thus, the usage of oxygen to strengthen Ti is restricted in the industry. In this study, we rekindled the research of oxygen behavior in Ti with the purpose of developing Ti alloys with high strength and suitable ductility by using no expensive and poisonous element. To this end, experiments of producing high performance commercially pure Ti using only oxygen solid solution were carried out. The oxygen element was introduced into the Ti by two different powder metallurgy methods. The microstructural examination and mechanical test were performed for the samples, which indicated a strong hardening effect of oxygen in spite of the processing routes. Most importantly, the results suggested that a high elongation to failure of over 20% can still be obtained in the samples having yield stress over 800 MPa, up to an oxygen content of 0.8 wt%, which is far beyond the previously recognized limit.

Excited by the great success of metal halide perovskites in the optoelectronic and electro-optic fields and the interesting emerging physics (Rashba splitting, quantum anomalous hall effect) of layered metal halides, metal halides have recently been attracting significant attentions from both research and industrial communities. It is shown that most progresses have been made when these materials are obtained at reduced dimensions. Among several growth methods, vapor phase epitaxy has been demonstrated with a universal control on morphology, phase, and composition. We thus believe that a thorough understanding on the physical properties and on the growth of general metal halide compounds at reduced dimensions would be very beneficial in the study of recent perovskites and layered metal halide materials. This review covers the physical properties of most studied metal halides and summarizes the vapor phase epitaxial growth knowledge collected in the past century. We hope that this comprehensive review could be helpful in designing new physical properties and in planning growth parameters for emerging metal halide crystals.

The nucleation and growth of Al on 7 × 7 and $\sqrt 3 \times \sqrt 3$ R30 Al reconstructed Si(111) that result in strain-free Al overgrown films grown with an atomically abrupt metamorphic interface are compared. The reconstructed surfaces and abrupt strain relaxations are verified using reflection high-energy electron diffraction. The topography of evolution is examined with atomic force microscopy. The growth of Al on both the surfaces exhibits 3D island growth, but the island evolution of growth is dramatically different. On the 7 × 7 surface, mounds formed are uniformly distributed across the substrate, and growth appears to proceed uniformly. Alternatively, on the $\sqrt 3 \times \sqrt 3$ R30 surface, Al atoms exhibit a clear preference to form mounds near the step edges. During Al growth, mounds increase in size and number, expanding out from step edges until they cover the whole substrate. Consistent expression of a mounded nucleation and growth mode imparts a physical limitation to the achievable surface roughness that may impact the ultimate performance of layered devices such as Josephson junctions that are critical components of superconducting quantum circuits.

Plastic deformation of small metallic single crystals has focused a lot of attention because of their enhanced or specific mechanical properties. Here, submicron beryllium wires, obtained from selective etching of an Al/Be eutectic alloy, were deformed in tension in situ using a transmission electron microscope. Our observations indicate that wires oriented parallel to their 〈c〉 axis and containing almost no dislocations present a fragile-like behavior associated to a high stress level. $\left\{ {10\bar 12} \right\}$ 〈1011〉 twins were also frequently observed near fractured wires, indicating that this deformation mode is important in small-scale Be. In a twinned area, a locally ductile behavior was observed due to the favorable orientation for prismatic slip. We also stress out the importance of a remaining outer layer, made of Al oxide, in the plastic deformation. On the basis of finite element modeling, we show that the deformation of the wire may involve dislocations moving along the wire axis, in or close to the Be/Al oxide interface, in agreement with in situ observations. Thus, even in naturally oxidized wires, the outer layer is supposed to play an important role in the deformation, not only in modifying a stress/strain field but also presumably in facilitating diffusional processes, such as dislocation climb or dislocation nucleation.

This work investigates the relative contributions to strengthening from twinning, solid-solution, precipitation, and irradiation hardening mechanisms in sputtered Cu–W thin films irradiated to different doses. A nanograin solid solution strengthening mechanism with a linear compositional dependence is observed for the as-grown alloys and for the alloy samples irradiated to 0.5 dpa. Solid solution strengthening is the major strengthening mechanism for Cu99.5W0.5 at all irradiation doses. Irradiation induces precipitation in samples with W concentrations greater than or equal to 1% at doses above ≈0.5 dpa. The growth of 1–4 nm precipitates enhances the hardness of these alloys, and the degree of strengthening is determined by the interparticle spacing. While the alloys exhibit steady-state properties after a relatively low dose (≈1 dpa), the different time scales associated with detwinning and damage accumulation in pure Cu lead transients at higher doses (>5 dpa).

LiFe1−xYxPO4 doped (d-LFP) with amounts of yttrium (0.01% < x < 5% w/w) show a remarkable effect on the electrochemical behavior. The d-LPF samples were investigated on the Li extraction/insertion performance through charge/discharge and capacity–voltage curves. The best performance was attained with Y content of x = 1%. The materials were synthesized by a hydrothermal method and characterized by x-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy–energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (SEM–EDX). The XRD studies showed that d-LPF had the same monoclinic structure as the undoped material. The achieved electrode performance has been attributed to the addition of Y3+ ion by stabilizing the orthorhomic structure. The electrode resistance decreases through the Y-doping.

In this paper, a simple evolution equation for dislocation densities moving on a slip plane is proven. This equation gives the time evolution of dislocation density at a general field point on the slip plane, due to the approach of new dislocations and tilting of dislocations already at the field point. This equation is fully consistent with Acharya's evolution equation and Hochrainer et al.’s “continuous dislocation dynamics” (CDD) theory. However, it is shown that the variable of dislocation curvature in CDD is unnecessary if one considers one-dimensional flux divergence along the dislocation velocity direction.