Strength-ductility synergy in a 1.4 GPa austenitic steel with a heterogeneous lamellar microstructure

Increasing the yield strength of austenitic steel without significantly sacrificing ductility has been a long-standing technical challenge. Here, we obtained an ultrahigh yield strength (∼1.4 GPa) and ductile (∼37% uniform elongation) austenitic steel through innovatively combining cold rolling, flash annealing, and tempering (CFT) processes. Such CFT steel shows a heterogeneous lamellar microstructure composed of reversed austenite and …