Alloying reactions in nanostructured multilayers during intense deformation

Under intense deformation of metallic multilayer samples, a nanometer-scale layer thickness and grain size develops during repeated cold-rolling. Along with the evolution of the highly refined microstructure, a nanoscale interfacial alloying occurs that can result in an amorphization reaction. The deformation of multilayers exhibits driven system behavior during alloying. As the length scale of the layer thickness converges to the length scale of the mixing zone during rolling, amorphization develops in appreciable volumes. The results from selected experiments demonstrate that the relative specific interfacial area is the key microstructural metric to describe the deformation-driven alloying.