Electrical Signals in Dynamically Stressed Ionic Crystals: A Dislocation Model

Abstract

A summary of new and previously published data on shock‐induced electrical signals observed in nominally pure NaCl single crystals is presented. A dislocation dynamics model is developed to account for the microscopic origin of these signals. This model, although only qualitatively applied so far, is shown to be able to explain many of the interesting features of the observed data, notably the change of signal polarity at ∼10 and ∼110 kbar and the distinct signal profiles observed when the sample is shocked along different crystallographic directions. New experimental results for NaCl single crystals doped with Ca²⁺, Ba²⁺, Mg²⁺, and OH⁻ impurity ions are also presented. These results are consistent with the predictions of the proposed dislocation dynamics model.