Development of the cube texture at low annealing temperatures in highly rolled pure nickel

The development of texture and microstructure during recrystallization of pure nickel rolled to very high strains has been investigated. Low-temperature annealing was chosen in order to separate the effects of recrystallization and grain growth. Particular attention was focused on the nucleation and growth of the cube orientation texture component, and on the effect of twinning in producing texture components of other orientations. The growth rates for recrystallizing grains of cube and non-cube orientations were analyzed from the EBSP data using an extended Cahn-Hagel method. Within the estimated experimental errors the growth rates of both orientation classes remain constant during recrystallization, with the cube orientation grains having a higher growth rate by a factor of similar to 3. Some minor recrystallization texture components result from twinning, with the role of twinning being most important in the early stages of recrystallization. (C) 2007 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.