| About this Abstract | 
   
    | Meeting | 2021 TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition | 
   
    | Symposium | Defect and Phase Transformation Pathway Engineering for Desired Microstructures | 
   
    | Presentation Title | Evolution of Metastable Grain Boundaries and Its Implications on Nanocrystals’ Hardness Variation | 
   
    | Author(s) | Zhitong  Bai, Glenn  Balbus, Daniel  Gianola, Yue  Fan | 
   
    | On-Site Speaker (Planned) | Yue  Fan | 
   
    | Abstract Scope | Recent experiments show that nanocrystals can be rejuvenated by pulsive femtosecond laser and their hardness can be effectively tuned. However, a mechanistic understanding on such phenomenon remains unclear. Here we investigate the evolution of a multiplicity of metastable grain boundaries in Cu under fast driving conditions using atomistic modeling techniques. A universal hysteresis is observed, and the GB is driven to a higher energy state after pulsive stimuli. Using enhanced data-mining algorithm to analyze the annealing behavior of GBs at various conditions, we construct a high-resolution pixel map for GB’s energetic evolution, showing that it is divided into an ageing regime and a rejuvenating regime over the energy—temperature space. The ageing/rejuvenating origin is attributed to the energy imbalance during the interchanges between the GB’s metastable states. A self-consistent kinetic equation is derived to capture the GB’s energetic and mechanical responses to external stimuli, which can explain the experimental observation. | 
   
    | Proceedings Inclusion? | Planned: |