controlled heat treatment in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention as shown in fig5 increased yield strengths may be as large as about 45 compared to the u201c as rolled u201d condition at the same time the tensile ductilities are greatly increased due to the formation of flaw free nanostructured materials the nanostructured materials in accordance with preferred embodiments of the invention are fully dense and free of flaws and porosity u201c fully dense u201d refers to materials that are have a density within 0 1 of their theoretical density u201c free of flaws and porosity u201d refers to materials that have less 0 1 vol pores and no cracks at grain boundaries u201c controlled heat treatment u201d or annealing of deformed starting materials refers to heating the specimen in a controlled atmosphere with prescribed heat up and ramp down temperature rates and time periods resulting in the formation of small nanometer scale grains in a preferred embodiment the intermetallic compounds are single phase alloys which form highly ordered crystalline materials the preferred intermetallic compounds used to make the materials hereinafter referred to as u201c starting material u201d in accordance with preferred embodiments of the invention include a base material to which certain percentages of other elements may optionally be added preferred intermetallic compounds for example may include the feco based intermetallic hiperco alloys 50 and 50hs available from carpenter technology inc and described in u s pat no 5 501 747 which.