Massive reorientations of bulk single and oligocrystals via solid state processing

Single crystalline materials have the potential to exhibit superior performance because they exclude grain boundaries, which increase susceptibility to creep, oxidation, and corrosion, and make thermal and electronic transport inefficient. However, single crystal properties vary significantly with crystallographic orientation, making the ability to control the orientation critical for their use in applications. The complex nature of crystal nucleation and growth processes makes such control challenging. Here we report a new crystal reorientation mechanism that results in abrupt and massive orientation changes in bulk single crystalline and oligocrystalline alloys via solid state thermal processing. We demonstrated this method in two alloy systems, FeMnAlNi and CuAlMn, and achieved repeated, massive orientation changes in the solid state. These findings offer a new strategy for manipulating the orientation of large single crystals on demand in order to take advantage of their superior and highly anisotropic properties.