AFM Observation of Fe-Al Single Crystals under in situ Deformation

Fe-Al single crystals of three different compositions (20, 28 and 40 at.% Al) in single slip orientation were studied. Evolution of their surfaces during deformation at room temperature was observed in situ in atomic force microscope. Atomic force microscopy allows us to investigate slip lines on much finer scale than traditional optical observations. Wavy slip bands in $Fe-Al_{20},$ cross-slip in $Fe-Al_{28}$ and weak slip line texture in $Fe-Al_{40}$ are described. Post mortem observations of surfaces of $Fe-Al_{28}$ deformed at elevated temperatures (in the range of yield stress anomaly) are presented as well.