Nanotwin-assisted grain growth in nanocrystalline gold films under cyclic loading.

Under mechanical loading, nanocrystalline metals show unique behaviour, among the most common of which are high strength, mechanically induced grain growth and twin formation. However, mechanically induced grain growth is seldom correlated with twins. Here we report a clear relationship between grain growth and nanoscale twins in 20-nm-thick gold films with a grain size of ~19 nm under cyclic loading based on atomic-scale observations and analyses. We find that the formation of nanotwins is an effective way to assist grain coarsening, following a fundamental process that the mutual formation of nanotwins in two neighbouring grains changes the local grain orientation and dissociates the grain boundary into new segments, which become more mobile. The proposed mechanism of nanotwin-assisted grain growth may have important implications for understanding the interface-mediated mechanisms of cyclic plastic deformation and for the interface engineering design of nanostructured metals with both high strength and good fatigue resistance.