Structure–Property–Functionality of Bimetal Interfaces

Interfaces, such as grain boundaries, phase boundaries, and surfaces, are important in materials of any microstructural size scale, whether the microstructure is coarse-grained, ultrafine-grained, or nano-grained. In nanostructured materials, however, they dominate material response and as we have seen many times over, can lead to extraordinary and unusual properties that far exceed those of their coarse-grained counterparts. In this article, we focus on bimetal interfaces. To best elucidate interface structure–property–functionality relationships, we focus our studies on simple layered composites composed of an alternating stack of two metals with bimetal interfaces spaced less than 100 nm. We fabricate these nanocomposites by either a bottom–up method (physical vapor deposition) or a top–down method (accumulative roll bonding) to produce two distinct interface types. Atomic-scale differences in interface structure are shown to result in profound effects on bulk-scale properties.