Mobility of Dislocations in Aluminum

Abstract

The velocities of individual dislocations of edge and mixed types in pure aluminum single crystals were determined as a function of applied‐resolved shear stress and temperature. The dislocation velocities were determined from measurements of the displacements of individual dislocations produced by stress pulses of known duration. The Berg‐Barrett x‐ray technique was employed to observe the dislocations, and stress pulses of 15 to 108 μsec duration were applied by propagating torsional waves along the axes of [111]‐oriented cylindrical crystals. Resolved shear stresses up to 16×10⁶ dynes/cm² were applied at temperatures ranging from −150° to +70°C, and dislocation velocities were found to vary from 10 to 2800 cm/sec over these ranges of stress and temperature. The experimental conditions were such that the dislocation velocities were not significantly influenced by impurities, dislocation curvature, dislocation‐dislocation interactions, or long‐range internal stress fields in the crystals. The velocity of dislocations is found to be linearly proportional to the applied‐resolved shear stress, and to decrease with increasing temperature. Qualitative comparison of these results with existing theories leads to the conclusion that the mobility of individual dislocations in pure aluminum is governed by dislocation‐phonon interactions. The phonon‐viscosity theory of dislocation mobility can be brought into agreement with the experimental results by reasonable choices of the values of certain constants appearing in the theory.