Grain boundary compatibility and its impact on the reversibility of superelastic micropillars

The mechanical reversibility of stress-induced martensitic transformations is critical for the functional durability of superelastic materials, particularly at small scale. This study investigates the impact of grain boundary (GB) compatibility on the mechanical reversibility of martensitic transformations in bicrystal Cu₆₇Al₂₄Mn₉ micropillars. By combining the geometrically nonlinear theory with high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and nanomechanical compression experiments, we demonstrate that the crystallographic orientation and geometric coherence of GBs play a decisive role in transformation reversibility. Micropillars with GBs satisfying a necessary condition for rank-one connections between twin laminates exhibit diffuse GB morphology and recoverable transformation strains over 10,000 cycles. The findings validate recent theoretical predictions on kinematic compatibility in polycrystalline systems with non-transforming defects. The rank-one criterion underlies a design strategy for polycrystalline superelastic alloys to achieve high fatigue-resistant without altering chemical composition. The theoretical framework opens new directions for advancing microstructural design in shape memory alloys.