Change in the nano-structure of Al-base alloy ribbons in response to tensile stress - a small-angle X-ray scattering study

The microstructure of aluminum‐base alloys consists of icosahedral or amorphous particles 3 to 10 nm in size distributed in the face centered Al‐rich matrix. These particles are considered to cause high mechanical strength. Structural changes due to the deformation were detected for some Al‐base alloys by small‐angle X‐ray scattering, even after very weak plastic deformation. An increase in the scattering intensities parallel to the uniaxial tensile stress was detected for scattering vectors near 0.02 Å‐1, and can be attributed to the increase in the structure factor for the correlation between particles. This indicates that the degree of particle ordering is increased in the direction of the uniaxial tension with the motion of dislocations under tensile stress.