The role of annealing twins during recrystallization of Cu Original Research Article

The texture and grain boundary structure of recrystallized materials are dependent upon the character of the deformed matrix and the selective nucleation and growth of crystallites from the deformation structure. Annealing twin boundary formation in materials of low to medium stacking fault energy is not only a product of the recrystallized structure, but also plays an important role in the recrystallization process itself. In situ and ex situ recrystallization experiments were performed on pure copper (99.99% pure) previously deformed by equal channel angular extrusion. Intermittent characterization of the structure on the surface of bulk specimens was accomplished using electron backscatter diffraction. The character of the structure where nucleation preferentially occurs is presumed to be in heavily deformed regions as nuclei were first observed in such microstructures as viewed from the specimen surface. Grain growth is observed to be heavily dependent upon twinning processes at the low temperatures used for in situ experiments, with twinning occurring to aid the recrystallization process. It is shown at these temperatures that the slowest growing grains obtain the highest fraction of twin boundaries as the new twin orientations presumably increase the boundary energy at positions where there is insufficient driving force to continue growth.