Texture-controlled growth of large-scale single-crystal metal foils

Single-crystal metal foils are essential for advanced applications in the areas of electronics, communication, and energy systems owing to their unparalleled intrinsic properties and exceptional functional performance. Current approaches for fabricating single-crystal metal foils primarily focus on energy modulation—such as surface energy, interface energy, and strain energy—to promote abnormal grain growth in commercially available foils. However, the intrinsic variability of commercial feedstocks, particularly in texture types and strengths, severely undermines precise control and reproducibility, thus posing a fundamental bottleneck to scalable production. Here, we propose a texture-controlled growth strategy that integrates controlled rolling, recrystallization annealing, and single-crystallization annealing to enable the scalable fabrication of single-crystal metal foils. By introducing stored energy via controlled rolling, a uniformly {100} texture develops during recrystallization and enables stable single crystal growth. Utilizing this systematic process chain, we successfully fabricated seven kinds of A4-sized single-crystal copper foils and five kinds of 6 × 5 cm2 single-crystal nickel foils. Through precisely controlling texture evolution in conventional cast, rolled, and electroplated feedstocks, this approach provides a robust and universal route for the fabrication of singlecrystal metal foils and has the potential to facilitate their industrial-scale applications.