Abstract
Nanocrystalline NiTi alloys were processed by devitrification of an amorphous phase to elucidate the impact of the nanocrystallinity on the thermally induced martensitic phase transformation. Forced by a size-dependent strain energy barrier, atomic-scale twinning leads to a unique path of the martensitic phase transformation. The observed twin boundaries of very low energy facilitate arrays of compound twins on atomic scale to overcome the strain energy barrier of the nanograins thus violating the hitherto well-established theory of martensite formation.