Deformation Mechanisms in Magnesium Single Crystals Compressed in the Direction Parallel to Hexagonal Axis

Abstract

Deformation mechanisms in magnesium were investigated with single crystals strained by compression parallel to the hexagonal axis, because main deformation mechanisms in magnesium can not be effective for this type of compression. These deformation mechanisms were found to be twinnings along various composition planes which contain the ⟨{1120}⟩ or ⟨{1010}⟩ zone axis, but any slip deformation effective for this compression was not observed evidently under an optical microscope. The critical resolved shear stresses for these twinnings were measured to be very high (about twice that for nonbasal slip) and to decrease rapidly with the increase of test temperature.