Abstract
By investigating intergranular strains using in-situ high-energy x-ray and neutron diffraction, we demonstrate significantly different deformation behavior from previously observed in nanocrystalline and ultrafine-grained Ni. Little intergranular strain or texture change was found in nanocrystalline Ni indicating a grain boundary mediated deformation mechanism. A remarkable intergranular strain build-up was observed in ultrafine-grained Ni, which was attributed to dislocation activities, but the unusual angular dependence of intergranular strains gave evidence of stress relaxation by deformation twinning, as confirmed by TEM observations. From the intergranular strain evolution and the texture change, clear evidence of deformation crossovers is presented in Ni with grain sizes from nano to meso scale.