THE EFFECT OF ORIENTATION AND IMPURITIES ON THE MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF MOLYBDENUM SINGLE CRYSTALS

Abstract

Molybdenum single crystals containing less than 10 p.p.m. of carbon, 5 p.p.m. of nitrogen, and 5 p.p.m. of oxygen have been prepared by zone melting and hydrogen gas purification. The mechanical properties of the crystals have been measured in tension and compression over a range of temperature from 20 to 298 °K. It was found that the critical resolved shear stress and the temperature dependence of the critical resolved shear stress decreased with increasing purity. It was found that at all test temperatures the CRSS law fails. The critical resolved shear stress is a minimum in the (100) tension axis orientation and reaches a maximum with the tensile axis along the (110)(111) line of the stereographic triangle. It was also found that the ductility of molybdenum single crystals was not improved by purification.