DISLOCATIONS

 Edge dislocation
 Screw dislocation
 Plastic Deformation in Crystalline Materials

Slip Twinning Phase Transformation Creep Mechanisms

(Dislocation
motion)

Grain boundary sliding

Vacancy diffusion

Dislocation climb
 Plastic deformation of a crystal by shear
Shear stress

m
Shearing stress ()

Sinusoidal
relationship

Realistic curve

Displacement
As a first approximation the  2x 
stress-displacement curve can be    m Sin 
written as  b 
x
At small values of displacement
Hooke’s law should apply   G  G
a
 2x 
 For small values of x/b  m 
 b 
G b
Hence the maximum shear
m 
stress at which slip should occur
2 a
G
If b ~ a m
2
 The shear modulus of metals is in the range 20 – 150 GPa

G
m  The theoretical shear stress will be
2 in the range 3 – 30 GPa

 Actual shear stress is 0.5 – 10 MPa

 I.e. (Shear stress)theoretical > 100 * (Shear stress)experimental !!!!

DISLOCATIONS

Dislocations weaken the crystal

Carpet
Pull
 DISLOCATIONS

EDGE MIXED SCREW

 Usually dislocations have a mixed character and Edge and Screw

dislocations are the ideal extremes

DISLOCATIONS

Random Structural
 Geometrically necessary dislocations
 Dislocation is a boundary
between the slipped and the
unslipped parts of the crystal
lying over a slip plane

Slipped Unslipped
part part
of the of the
crystal crystal
A dislocation has associated with it two vectors:


t  A unit tange nt vector along the dislocatio n line

b  The Burgers vector
 Burgers Vector
Edge dislocation

Crystal with edge dislocation

Perfect crystal

RHFS:
Right Hand Finish to Start
convention
 Edge dislocation


Direction of tt vector
dislocation line vector


Direction of b
b vector
 Dislocation is a boundary between the slipped and the unslipped parts
of the crystal lying over a slip plane
 The intersection of the extra half-plane of atoms with the slip plane
defines the dislocation line (for an edge dislocation)
 Direction and magnitude of slip is characterized by the Burgers vector
of the dislocation
(A dislocation is born with a Burgers vector and expresses it even in
its death!)
 The Burgers vector is determined by the Burgers Circuit
 Right hand screw (finish to start) convention is used for determining
the direction of the Burgers vector
 As the periodic force field of a crystal requires that atoms must move
from one equilibrium position to another  b must connect one
lattice position to another (for a full dislocation)
 Dislocations tend to have as small a Burgers vector as possible
 The edge dislocation has compressive stress field above and tensile
stress field below the slip plane
 Dislocations are non-equilibrium defects and would leave the crystal
if given an opportunity
Compressive stress
field

Tensile stress
field
 STRESS FIELD OF A EDGE DISLOCATION
X – FEM SIMULATED CONTOURS

FILM
28 Å

SUBSTRATE
b
27 Å

(MPa)
(x & y original grid size = b/2 = 1.92 Å)
Positive edge dislocation
Negative edge dislocation

ATTRACTION Can come together and cancel

one another

REPULSION
 Conservative Motion of dislocations
(Glide) On the slip plane

Motion of
Edge
dislocation

Non-conservative Motion of dislocation

(Climb)  to the slip plane

 For edge dislocation: as b  t → they define a plane → the slip plane

 Climb involves addition or subtraction of a row of atoms below the
half plane
► +ve climb = climb up → removal of a plane of atoms
► ve climb = climb down → addition of a plane of atoms
 Edge Dislocation Glide

Shear stress

Surface
step
 Edge Climb

Positive climb Negative climb

Removal of a row of atoms Addition of a row of atoms
 Screw dislocation

[1]

[1] Bryan Baker

chemed.chem.purdue.edu/genchem/ topicreview/bp/materials/defects3.html -
 Slip plane 2 Screw dislocation cross-slip

b

Slip plane 1

The dislocation is shown cross-slipping from the blue plane to the green plane
The dislocation line ends on:
 The free surface of the crystal
 Internal surface or interface
 Closes on itself to form a loop
 Ends in a node

 A node is the intersection point of more than two dislocations

 The vectoral sum of the Burgers vectors of dislocations meeting at a

node = 0
 Geometric properties of dislocations

Type of dislocation
Dislocation Property
Edge Screw
Relation between dislocation
 ||
line (t) and b
Slip direction || to b || to b
Direction of dislocation line
|| 
movement relative to b
Process by which dislocation
climb Cross-slip
may leave slip plane
 Mixed dislocations

b t

b

Pure screw Pure Edge

 Motion of a mixed dislocation

[1]

We are looking at the plane of the cut (sort of a semicircle centered in the lower left corner). Blue circles denote
atoms just below, red circles atoms just above the cut. Up on the right the dislocation is a pure edge dislocation on
the lower left it is pure screw. In between it is mixed. In the link this dislocation is shown moving in an
animated illustration.

[1] http://www.tf.uni-kiel.de/matwis/amat/def_en/kap_5/backbone/r5_1_2.html
 Energy of dislocations

 Dislocations have distortion energy associated with them

 E per unit length
 Edge → Compressive and tensile stress fields
Screw → Shear strains

Elastic E
Energy of dislocation
Non-elastic (Core) ~E/10

1 2
Energy of a dislocation / unit length E  Gb
2
G → () shear modulus
b → |b|
 1 2
E  Gb  Dislocations will have as small a b as possible
2

Full b → Full lattice translation

Dislocations
(in terms of lattice translation)
Partial b → Fraction of lattice
translation
 Dissociation of dislocations

Consider the reaction:

2b → b + b
Change in energy:
G(2b)2/2 → 2[G(b)2/2]
G(b)2
 The reaction would be favorable
 FCC
1 1
b2   211 b3   12 1 
(111) 6 6
1
1 b1   110 
b3   12 1  2
6 C
1
b2   211 B
6 A (111)
(111) 1
b1   110 
Slip plane 2
Some of the atoms are omitted for clarity

1  1  1 

 2
[110] 
(111)
→ 
 6
[12 1] 
(111)
+  [211] 
6 (111)
(111)

1 
 [12 1]  1 
6 (111)  [211] 
Shockley Partials  6 (111)

b12 > (b22 + b32)

½>⅓
FCC Pure edge dislocation
Dislocation line vector
Extra half plane
1 
 [1 12]  (1 10)
2 (111),(1 10)

Slip plane (111)

1 
 [1 1 0] 
2 (111)
Burger’s vector

The extra- “half plane” consists of two ‘planes’ of atoms

BCC Pure edge dislocation Dislocation line vector

1 
 [1 12] 
2 (1 10),(111)
1 
 [1 1 1] 
2 (1 10)

Burger’s vector

Extra half plane (1 10)

(111) Slip plane

1
111
1 2
 1 12 
2

(1 10)
 Dislocations in Ionic crystals

 In ionic crystals if there is an extra half-plane of atoms contained only

atoms of one type then the charge neutrality condition would
be violated  unstable condition
 Burgers vector has to be a full lattice translation
CsCl → b = <100> Cannot be ½<111>
NaCl → b = ½ <110> Cannot be ½<100>
 This makes Burgers vector large in ionic crystals
Cu → |b| = 2.55 Å
NaCl → |b| = 3.95 Å

CsCl
 Formation of dislocations (in the bulk of the crystal)

 Due to accidents in crystal growth from the melt

 Mechanical deformation of the crystal

 Annealed crystal: dislocation density () ~ 108 – 1010 /m2

 Cold worked crystal:  ~ 1012 – 1014 /m2
 Burgers vectors of dislocations in cubic crystals

Crystallography determines the Burgers vector

fundamental lattice translational vector lying on the slip plane

Monoatomic FCC ½<110>

Monoatomic BCC ½<111>

Monoatomic SC <100>

NaCl type structure ½<110>

CsCl type structure <100>

DC type structure ½<110>

“Close packed volumes tend to remain close packed,

close packed areas tend to remain close packed &
close packed lines tend to remain close packed”
 Slip systems

Crystal Slip plane(s) Slip direction

FCC {111} <110>

HCP (0001) <1120>

BCC
{110}, {112}, {123} [111]
Not close packed

Anisotropic No clear choice

 Wavy slip lines
 Role of Dislocations

Creep Diffusion
Fatigue (Pipe)
Fracture
Slip
Structural

Incoherent Twin

Grain boundary
(low angle)

Semicoherent Interfaces

Disc of vacancies
~ edge dislocation