Deformation mechanisms induced by nanoindentation tests on a metastable austenitic stainless steel: A FIB/SIM investigation

In this work, nanoindentation experiments (both monotonic and cyclic) were carried out on AISI 301LN metastable steel in order to induce localized deformation of individual austenitic grains. The activated plastic deformation mechanisms were evaluated by using different advanced characterization techniques (Electron BackScattered Diffraction (EBSD) and TEM), but mainly by FIB/SIM. FIB/SIM 3D-tomography was also conducted to reconstruct the deformation structure under the residual imprint. These observations, surprisingly, showed the existence of a good correlation between SIM and TEM images, concerning phase transformation and plastic zone development.