Strengthening and softening of nanocrystalline nickel during multistep nanoindentation...

Multistep load-unload nanoindentation was employed to address the effect of deformation-induced microstructural evolution on mechanical behavior of nanocrystalline Ni. Deformation discontinuity was deliberately introduced by unloading-reloading during nanoindentation testing, which allows us to examine the influence of microstructural evolution on the successive deformation. Strain strengthening/softening of nanocrystalline nickel, associated with the transition of deformation behavior from dislocation activity at high loading rates to a grain-boundary-mediated process at low loading rates, was uncovered by means of this experimental methodology.