Abstract (eng)
The microstructure is very important for the macroscopic behaviour of materials, especially in the case of nanocrystalline materials. The methods of severe plastic deformation (SPD) belong to the most important techniques for the production of bulk nanocrystalline materials. Among these, high pressure torsion (HPT), which is torsional deformation under high hydrostatic pressure, is the most convenient method to conduct fundamental and systematic research. In this work X-ray line profile analysis, which is one of the most important methods to quantify crystallite sizes and the nature and density of lattice defects, was used to study HPT-deformed copper, nickel and silver as well as sintered ruthenium. For HPT-deformed copper and nickel it is shown that the unloading of the hydrostatic pressure after the HPT-deformation strongly influences the remaining microstructure. The unloading leads to a massive annihilation of dislocations due to the higher mobility of vacancies, whereas the fragmentation of the material is -for the most part- completed already during the HPT-deformation under hydrostatic pressure. Due to the low stacking fault energy of silver twins in addition to high dislocation densities are produced during HPT-deformation. Furthermore, stress induced recovery and recrystallization effects are observed at high deformations and high hydrostatic pressures. The analysis of the microstructure of compacted ruthenium nano-powder yields interesting characteristics due to different sintering methods and sintering temperatures. Moreover, important insights into the ideal application of different evaluation methods of line profile analysis are achieved.