Dislocation Theory

Dislocation theory
Subjects of interest
 Introduction
 Observation of dislocations
 Burgers vector and the dislocation loop
 Dislocation in the FCC, HCP and BCC lattice
 Jogs and kinks on dislocations

Introduction
Dislocations introduce imperfection into the
structure and therefore these could explain how
real materials exhibit lower yield stress value than
those observed in theory. Without dislocations, in
perfect crystals, the sliding of planes above each
other would have to be a rigid movement of all
atoms from one position to another.
It is possible to crystals in the form of fibers of a
small diameter, called Whiskers, which their
strength is close to the theoretical strength.
Introduction
Dislocations introduce imperfection into the structure and therefore these could explain how real
materials exhibit lower yield stress value than those observed in theory.
Carpet Pull
Dislocation
Produce
imperfection
Dislocation
Observation of dislocations
A variety of techniques have been used to observe dislocations in the past 40 years to aid the
better understanding of dislocation behavior.
1. Chemical (etch-pit) technique
 Using etchant which forms a pit at the
point where a dislocation intersect the
surface.
Etch pits on slip bands in alpha

brass crystals
2. Decoration of dislocation technique
A small amount of impurity is added to form precipitates after suitable heat treatment to give
internal structure of the dislocation lines.
Rarely used in metals but in ionic crystals such as AgCl, NaCl, KCl and CaF2.
Hexagonal network of dislocations in NaCl

detected by a decoration technique.
3. Transmission electron microscope (TEM)
TEM is the most powerful technique used to study dislocations.
 A thin foil of 100 nm is prepared using
electro-polishing from a ~100 μm thick
sheet.
 This thin foil is transparent to electrons in

the electron microscope and this makes it
possible to observe dislocation networks,
stacking faults, dislocation pile-ups at
grain boundary.
 By using the theories of electron

diffraction, it is possible to determine the
dislocation number, Burgers vectors and
slip planes.
Burgers vector and the dislocation loop
Burgers vector is the most characteristic
feature of a dislocation, which defines the
magnitude and the direction of slip.
 Edge Burgers vector is ┴ to the

dislocation line.
 Screw Burgers vector is // to the

dislocation line.
Both shear stress and final deformation are

identical for both situations.
Note: Most dislocations found in crystalline materials are probably neither pure edge or pure
screw but mixed.
Dislocations in single crystals are straight lines. However, in general, dislocations appear in
curves or loops, which in three dimensions form and interlocking dislocation network.
Any small segments of the dislocation loop can be resolved into edge and screw
components.
Burgers circuit
Burgers circuit is used to define the Burgers vector of dislocation.
Burgers circuits around
edge dislocation
Burgers circuits around

screw dislocation
Two rules are applied by the Burgers circuit construction used here.
 When looking the dislocation line, which defends the positive line sense of the dislocation,
the circuit is taken in a clockwise.
 The Burgers vector is taken from the final to the starting point.
Burgers circuit
Dislocations with the same sense

but opposite vectors or same
vectors with opposite senses are
physically opposites.
Burgers circuit
LH
RH
Dislocation in the FCC, HCP and BCC lattice
1. Cross-slip
In FCC cubic metals, the screw dislocations move in {111} type planes, but can switch from one
{111} type plane to another if it contains the direction of b. This process is called cross-slip.
 A screw dislocation at S is free to glide in
either (111) or (1-11) closed-packed planes.
 Double cross slip is shown in (d) where the
dislocation returns to the initial slip plane
(primary).
Cross slip in a face-centered cubic crystal
Cross slip on the polished surface of a

single crystal of 3.25% Si iron.
2. Dislocation dissociation
 Dislocation lines can end at the surface of a crystal and at grain boundaries, but never inside a
crystal. Thus , dislocations must either form closed loops or branched into two dislocations.
(dislocation dissociation).
 Dislocation dissociation occurs when the strength of dislocation is more than unity. The
system becomes unstable → dislocation therefore dissociate into two dislocations.
 Note: Dislocation of unit strength is a dislocation with a Burgers vector equal to one
lattice spacing along slip direction.
 The strength of dislocation will be more than unity in the case of the vacancy
agglomeration
 The dissociation reaction b1 → b2 + b3 will occur when b12 > b22 + b32.
 A dislocation of unit strength has a minimum energy when its Burgers vector is parallel to a
direction of closest atomic packing.
vacancy agglomeration
Slip occurs in the FCC lattice on the {111} plane in the <110> direction and with a Burgers
vector is (a0/2)[110].
The {111} planes are stacked on a close packed sequence ABCABC and vector b = (a/2)[10-1]
defines one of the observed slip direction, which can favorably energetically decompose into two
partial dislocations.
Dissociation of a dislocation to two partial

dislocations.
 The combination of the two partials AC and AD
is known as extended dislocation.
 The region between them is a stacking fault

which has undergone slip.
 The equilibrium of these partial dislocations

depends on the stacking fault energy.
The corners of the tetrahedron are donated

by A, B, C and D. The mid points of the
opposite faces are donated by α, β, γ, and δ.
 Burgers vector of the perfect Two-dimensional representation of the Thompson
dislocation is the edge of the tetrahedron illustrating the possible slip planes and
tetrahedron. the Burgers vectors of dislocations in an FCC crystal.
 Burgers vector of the partial dislocation
is the line from the corner to the face of
a center.
while a perfect screw dislocation in fcc (b = a/2<110>) can glide in two {111} planes, a
Shockley partial dislocation with b = a/6<112> lies in only one {111} plane ⇒ an extended
dislocation cannot cross-slip without recombining into a perfect screw dislocation (formation of
a constriction). Formation of a constriction requires energy and is easier for materials with large
γ (small d). Cross-slip is one of the mechanisms of dislocation multiplication and propagation ⇒
more difficult cross-slip in materials with low γ leads to the build up of high internal stresses ⇒
may lead to more brittle behavior
1 1   1  
[101]  [211]  [11 2]
2 6 6
1 1   1  
[011]  [1 2 1]  [11 2]
2 6 6
1  1  1  
[110]  [1 2 1]  [211]
2 6 6
200 nm
d~8 nm
 The wider region between partial
dislocations, the lower stacking fault
energy.
 Aluminum: high stacking fault energy →

cross slip??.
 Copper – lower stacking fault energy →
cross slip ??.
The figure below shows the flow curve for FCC single crystal:
 Explain the stages in this curve.
 Compare between the strain hardening in single crystals of Cu (low stacking fault
energy) and Al (high stacking fault energy).
3. Lomer-Cottrell barrier
Intersection of {111} planes during duplex slip by glide of dislocations is called Lomer- Cottrell
barrier.
3. Lomer-Cottrell barrier
Intersection of {111} plane during duplex slip by glide of dislocations is called Lomer- Cottrell
barrier.
Ex: consider two perfect dislocations lying in different {111} planes and both parallel to the line
of intersection of the {111} plane. When the partial dislocations meet at the line of intersection
of the two planes, the partials repel or attract each other according to the particular directions of
their Burgers factor.
 The new dislocation [011] lies parallel to the line of intersection in (001) plane and forms
Lomer-Cottrell locks.
 Lomer-Cottrell locks are the obstacles where the dislocation pileup during the plastic
deformation (strain hardening).
Dislocation in the FCC, BCC and HCP lattice
1. Dislocations dissociation
 A screw dislocation in a bcc metal can dissociate into three partials on three planes (3D
plane).
Edge dislocation in a bcc metal will

dissociate on a 2D slip plane. Because
that the deformation in BCC metals is
usually controlled by screw
dislocation.
Example: How does a screw dislocation move in a bcc metal? What about edge dislocation?.
Because the core of the screw dislocation is 3 dimensional, which makes it hard to slip on any slip
plane. It needs thermal activation to move. On the other hand, because the dissociation occurs on
a 2D plane, edge dislocations move 10 times faster than the screw dislocations
1. Dislocations dissociation
BCC Vs. FCC
BCC metals shows no easy gliding

2. Dislocations intersection
Slip occurs in the BCC lattice on {110}, {112}, {123} planes in the <111> direction and a
Burgers vector b = (a/2)[111].
Cottrell has suggested a dislocation reaction which appears to cause immobile dislocations.
(a/2[001] in iron) → leading to a crack nucleus formation mechanism for brittle fracture.
The dislocation is immobile since the {001} is not a

close-packed slip planes, the {001} planes is
therefore the cleavage plane when brittle fracture
occurs.
Example: Consider the following body-centered
cubic dislocation reaction:
Prove that the reaction will occur.

This reaction usually leads to Dislocation junctions
Honeycomb structure
Slip occurs in the BCC lattice on {110}, {112}, {123} planes in the <111> direction and a
Burgers vector b = (a/2)[111].
Cottrell has suggested a dislocation reaction which appears to cause immobile dislocations.
(a/2[001] in iron) → leading to a crack nucleus formation mechanism for brittle fracture.
The dislocation is immobile since the {001} is not a

close-packed slip planes, the {001} planes is
therefore the cleavage plane when brittle fracture
occurs.
Example: Consider the following body-centered
cubic dislocation reaction:
Prove that the reaction will occur.

Dislocation dissociation
Jogs and kinks on dislocations
Jog: a step in the dislocation line on another slip plane.
Kinks: a step in the dislocation line in the slip plane
Jog and kink: a part of

the dislocation line
Jog: a step in the dislocation line on another slip plane.
Kinks: a step in the dislocation line in the slip plane
 Jogs and kinks are defects in defects (dislocations): defected dislocations

 They are too small to be observed by TEM.
1. Jogs and kink generation
In general, jogs and kinks are created through:
 Dislocation intersections
 Double cross slip.
 Dislocation intersections:
Crystals contain many dislocations and a dislocation moving in its slip plane will intersect other
dislocations crossing the slip plane. The intersections of dislocations produce the two types of steps.
The type of the step is related to the type of intersected dislocations.
 Two edge dislocations with burgers vectors normal to each other.
This intersection will produce an edge jog PP’ parallel and equal to b1 with a Burger vector b2. To
determine which dislocation forms the jog: a jog forms when the Burger vector of the
intersecting dislocation is normal to the other dislocation line (b1 is normal to AB and b2 is
parallel to xy).
 Two edge dislocations with parallel burgers vectors.
This intersection will produce kinks (screw) on the two dislocations

 Edge and screw dislocations
This intersection will produce a jog with an edge orientation on the edge dislocation and a kink
with an edge orientation on the screw dislocation.
 Two screw dislocations
The intersection produces jogs of edge orientation in both screw dislocations. very important in
plastic deformation.
 Double cross slip:
2. Mobility of jogs and kinks in edge and screw dislocations
 Edge dislocations: Jogs do not influence
the glide of edge dislocations. They are
able to glide readily because they lie in the
slip planes of the original dislocations.
 Screw dislocations: Jogs will have “edge
character” and will be restricted to the
original slip plane. Thus, they prevent the
motion of screw dislocations.
 The only way that the screw dislocation
can slip to a new position and take its jogs
with it is by a non-conservative process
such as climb which is a thermally
activated process. Climbing is an
important high-temperature deformation
mechanism (Creep).
 Therefore the movement of jogged screw
dislocations will be temperature dependent.
This means that screw dislocations move
more slowly through a crystal than edge
dislocations.
 Jogs act as pinning points and cause dislocations to bow out with the radius R when the shear
stress τ is applied.
 At some critical radius Rc, the τc required to further increase R is bigger than the stress needed
for non-conservative climb. Then the dislocation will move forward leaving a trail of vacancies
behind each jog.
 For a segment of length ls the maximum stress is

 Deceasing the density due to the motion of sessile edge jogs in screw dislocations out off their
slip plane.
 This motion can result in a number of vacancy which is comparable to vacancy concentration
close to the melting temperature.
 Deceasing the density due to the motion of sessile edge jogs in screw dislocations
Generation of dislocations (Frank-Read sources)
Dislocation multiplication by double cross slip.
 If the high of the jog is bigger than one atomic spacing, the jog will be called super-jog.
 The motion of the dipole is different in the case of the super-jogs as compared to the normal jogs.
 The super-jogs act as pinning points to the dipole.
Stress needed to activate the Frank-Read dislocation source formed by the double cross slip is given by
the following equation:
In the case of steel:

 When dislocation loops are generated, they move toward grain boundaries and those loops will be
pushed back by the grain boundaries.
 In very fine grain (100 nm), the distance between the two points will be too short and according to
this equation, the stress needed for Frank-Read source will be very high and it will be hard to
generate dislocation (what about CRSS)???.
 The plasticity in nanopolycrystals is not mainly related to the dislocation.

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Dislocation theory

 Burgers vector and the dislocation loop

 Dislocation in the FCC, HCP and BCC lattice

 Jogs and kinks on dislocations

Etch pits on slip bands in alpha

Hexagonal network of dislocations in NaCl

 This thin foil is transparent to electrons in

 By using the theories of electron

 Edge Burgers vector is ┴ to the

 Screw Burgers vector is // to the

Both shear stress and final deformation are

Burgers circuits around

Dislocations with the same sense

Cross slip in a face-centered cubic crystal

Cross slip on the polished surface of a

Dissociation of a dislocation to two partial

 The region between them is a stacking fault

 The equilibrium of these partial dislocations

The corners of the tetrahedron are donated

 Aluminum: high stacking fault energy →

Edge dislocation in a bcc metal will

BCC metals shows no easy gliding

The dislocation is immobile since the {001} is not a

Prove that the reaction will occur.

The dislocation is immobile since the {001} is not a

Prove that the reaction will occur.

Jog and kink: a part of

 Jogs and kinks are defects in defects (dislocations): defected dislocations

 Two edge dislocations with parallel burgers vectors.

This intersection will produce kinks (screw) on the two dislocations

 For a segment of length ls the maximum stress is

In the case of steel:

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