Specific features of the formation of the microstructure of titanium nickelide upon thermomechanical treatment including cold plastic deformation to degrees from moderate to severe

X-ray diffraction, electron microscopy, microhardness measurements, and differential scanning calorimetry have been used to investigate the formation of the dislocation substructure and nanocrystalline and amorphous structures in Ti-Ni shape-memory alloys depending on the degree of cold deformation by rolling and post-deformation annealing. The moderate deformation ( e = 0.25) leads to the formation of a developed dislocation substructure; with an increase in the deformation to e = 2, the dislocation substructure is gradually substituted by a mixed nanocrystalline and amorphous structures. The residual martensite completely disappears as the deformation increases in the interval of e = 2−3 or upon annealing in the interval of 200–300°C. Annealing at 400°C after a moderate deformation leads to the formation of a polygonized (“nanosubgrain”) dislocation substructure in austenite. As the initial deformation increases to e = 2, this structure is gradually substituted by a nanocrystalline structure of austenite. Annealing after deformation to intermediate degrees ( e = 0.75−1.0) results in the formation of a mixture of nanocrystalline and submicrocrystalline polygonized structures.