Effect of orientation stability on recrystallization textures of deformed aluminium single crystals

High purity Al single crystals of the Cube (0 0 1)[1 0 0] and rotated Cube (0 1 1)[0 1 (1) over bar] orientations have been deformed in plane strain compression in a channel die. Deformation was carried out at temperatures between 25 and 600 degreesC up to strains of 1.2. The as-deformed microstructure has been characterised using electron microscopy and electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD). Annealing was carried out for various times and temperatures. The recrystallized microstructure has been studied using electron microscopy, and the orientation of recrystallized grains determined using EBSD. After cold deformation and annealing both orientations exhibited a random recrystallization texture component. After hot deformation both orientations retained a similar annealing texture to their starting deformation texture. The annealing texture of deformed single crystals was found to be more sensitive to the temperature of deformation than the stability of the orientation. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.