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Their temperature-sensitive motion is attributed to a steep rise in strength with decreasing temperature that constricts plastic zones at crack tips, leading to a ductile-to-brittle transition\n                    <jats:sup>1<\/jats:sup>\n                    . Here we evaluated the mechanical properties of group IV\u2013V bcc refractory alloys with similar electronic structures at 20\u2009K and found that these materials instead exhibit a plateau in tensile yield strength and fracture toughness as a function of temperature, with no apparent ductile-to-brittle transition. This behaviour arises from the global activation of twinning and an \u03c9-phase transformation, which nucleate dislocations at interfaces before global dislocation motion. The initial mechanism is temperature insensitive and controls yielding, thereby preventing a crack-tip plastic zone from constricting with decreasing temperature.\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1038\/s41586-026-11065-7","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,15]],"date-time":"2026-10-15T04:42:58Z","timestamp":1792039378000},"page":"923-929","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Competing mechanisms toughen bcc binary and medium-entropy alloys at 20 K"],"prefix":"10.1038","volume":"658","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4236-000X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"David H.","family":"Cook","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xiaoyu","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3085-8118","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Michael","family":"O\u2019Leary","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Satish","family":"Rao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Wenqing","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Calvin H.","family":"Belcher","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6355-1534","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Madelyn","family":"Payne","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8740-9583","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Pedro","family":"Borges","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2431-5723","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Tung Lik","family":"Lee","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1314-6212","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Arun","family":"Devaraj","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8968-321X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Mark","family":"Asta","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2124-8964","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Enrique J.","family":"Lavernia","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9743-606X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Diran","family":"Apelian","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3606-8309","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Andrew M.","family":"Minor","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5947-8362","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Dong","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3233-8279","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Punit","family":"Kumar","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0501-6998","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Robert O.","family":"Ritchie","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,14]]},"reference":[{"key":"11065_CR1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"60","DOI":"10.2320\/matertrans1960.23.60","volume":"23","author":"S Takeuchi","year":"1982","unstructured":"Takeuchi, S., Hashimoto, T. & Maeda, K. 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