Active loading at temperatures 295, 77, and 0.5 K is used to study the para
meters of the stretching curve and the plastic deformation distribution in
quenched and aged Al-Li alloys with 7.0 and 10.4 at.% lithium. It is shown
that for aged alloys, in contrast to quenched alloys, the strength is chara
cteristically high, the plasticity reserves are low, and the deformation di
stribution (macroscopic sections of deformation localization) is nonuniform
, if loading is conducted at room and low temperatures (295 and 77 K). The
deformation of quenched and aged alloys under deep cooling (at temperature
0.5 K) is distributed more homogeneously through the samples. The results a
re attributed to the influence of low temperatures on the rate of thermally
activated processes, controlling the motion of dislocations through impuri
ty barriers and the deformation-diffusion dissolution of delta (') precipit
ates. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.