Anomalous hardening in copper due to the growth of deformation-induced micro-twins after annealing

We report the annealing-induced anomalous hardening in rolled single crystal and polycrystalline copper caused by the appearance of a large amount of annealing twins. The origin of those twins is traced to the vast amount of micro-twins with width of 2-3 nm formed in the process of rolling. (c) 2006 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.