Quantification of room temperature strengthening of laser shock peened Ni-based superalloy using synchrotron microdiffraction

•Redundant dislocations are revealed to play a dominant role in laser shock peening induced plastic deformation in Ni-based superalloys.•Local dislocation densities in γ and γʹ phases are quantified separately using µXRD in a laser shock peened Ni-based superalloy.•A quantitative relationship between micro-scale local hardness increment and dislocation density is established over a millimeter range.