Microstructural characteristics of pure gold processed by equal-channel angular pressing

Experiments were conducted to evaluate the microstructural characteristics of pure (4N) gold processed by equal-channel angular pressing using routes A or B-c. Using atomic force microscopy and X-ray diffraction, it is shown that, although these two routes lead to similar dislocation densities of similar to 1.5-1.7 x 10(15) m(-2) and similar average grain sizes of similar to 460-490 nm, there are significant differences in the shearing patterns and in the densities of planar faults. (C) 2007 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.