Dislocation Dynamics

Abstract

Crystalline materials are usually far from being perfect and may contain various forms of defects, such as vacancies, interstitials and impurity atoms (point defects), dislocations (line defects), grain boundaries, heterogeneous interfaces and microcracks (planar defects), chemically heterogeneous precipitates, twins and other strain-inducing phase transformations (volume defects). Indeed, these defects determine to a large extent the strength and mechanical behavior of the crystal. Most often, dislocations define plastic yield and flow behavior, either as the dominant plasticity carriers or through their interactions with the other strain-producing defects.