Microstructural stability of a niobium single crystal deformed by equal channel angular pressing

Abstract

A [211]-oriented niobium single crystal was deformed by equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) at room temperature using the route Bc to a total strain of 9.2. A sharp cube texture develops after ECAP processing. The deformed samples were annealed in vacuum from 400ºC (673 K) to 900ºC (1173 K) for 1 h to evaluate their microstructural stability. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to image the microstructures of as-deformed and annealed specimens. Electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) was employed to determine the respective microtextures before and after annealing. Coarsening of the microstructure occurs at a maximum rate at 550ºC (823 K) due to discontinuous recrystallization. Normal grain growth replaces discontinuous recrystallization as the main coarsening mechanism above 700ºC (973 K).