Preparation of high strength bulk nano-scale Fe/Cu multilayers by repeated pressing-rolling

In recent years, multilayered laminates with the layer thickness in nano-meter order have been found to have exceptional mechanical and magnetic properties. The multilayered laminates have been prepared by the layer by layer deposition techniques such as vacuum deposition, sputtering and electrodeposition. Instead of the layer by layer deposition, a totally different approach of sample preparation, that utilizes the repeated pressing-rolling, has been successfully developed and applied to prepare the nano-scale Ag/Fe multilayers from metal sheets. One of the greatest advantages by the repeated pressing-rolling is to fabricate metallic multilayers in a bulk form. In the previous letter, we have reported the exploratory results on bulk nano-scale Fe/Cu multilayers. The present letter reports the formation process of the Fe/Cu nano-layered structures. Furthermore, taking advantage of such bulk sample preparation, the tensile properties of the nano-scale Cu/Fe multilayers will also be reported.