Evolution of the structure upon heating of submicrocrystalline and nanocrystalline copper produced by high-rate deformation

Methods of electron microscopy, dilatometry, and microhardness and resistivity measurements have been used to study the effect of annealing on the process of recrystallization of a mixed submicrocrys-talline+nanocrystalline (SMC+NC) structure of 99.8% copper produced by high-rate (∼105 s−1) deformation using dynamic channel angular pressing (DCAP). It has been shown that the SMC+NC structure of copper is thermally stable upon heating to a temperature of 150°C. It has been found that the ρ/ρ0 ratio of copper with an SMC+NC structure at a temperature of 4.2 K is considerably (by 5 times) higher than ρ/ρ0 of copper in the annealed coarse-grained state. This effect is due to a high concentration of defects and a high degree of dispersity of the copper structure after DCAP. Changes in the microhardness and in the resistivity (at a temperature of 4.2 K) of the SMC+NC copper after annealing characterize the level of relaxation processes.