Strain hardening mediated by coherent nanoprecipitates in ultrahigh-strength steels

Strengthening from single lattice defect such as dislocations or nanoprecipitates generally leads to the so-called strength-ductility tradeoff, which becomes particularly pronounced at the strength level of above 2 GPa. Herein, we report a sustainable strain-hardening mechanism in ultrahigh-strength martensitic steels via manipulating interaction among different lattice defects. We show that fast precipitation of low-misfit B2-ordered Ni(Al, Fe)...