Slip activity of persistent slip bands in polycrystalline nickel

The appearance of glide localizations after cyclic deformation in the saturation stage was investigated for polycrystalline nickel. It was shown that persistent slip bands (PSBs) are formed in a wide range of grain orientations. Concerning the grain size it was found, that the probability for the appearance of PSBs is higher for larger grains.The local slip activity of the formed PSBs was studied after half-cycle deformation using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The fraction of grains with glide-active PSBs and the glide-active PSB volume itself is very small after the half-cycle loading. The obtained local shear strain amplitudes are quite high and vary in the range of 0.2–5%. They are comparable with those found in nickel single crystals at the same loading procedure.