On dislocations formed by the collapse of vacancy discs

Abstract

The formation of dislocations by the collapsing vacancy disc mechanism is examined for aluminium, copper, silicon and germanium. It is shown that this mechanism can be important in the case of metals. In the case of silicon and germanium dislocation loops produced by the above mechanism, during usual crystal growth from the melt, will not roach sizes detectable by means of the optical microscope.