Screw-rotation twinning through helical movement of triple-partials

By in situ uniaxial-tensile tests with dynamic and atomic scale observation, we report the quantitative investigation of strain-induced deformation-twinning process through incoherent twin boundary propagation in nanocrystalline Au. The consecutive and quantitative strain maps revealed that a strong compressive strain, up to 5.8%, was formed. A screw-rotation twinning mechanism by consecutive and collective screw-rotations of triple-partials along a [111] screw-axis is proposed. This twin generates a macro-strain of 0.707, same as the conventional shear twins, but in a helical manner.