Abstract
Defects in the atomic arrangement are of paramount importance for the properties of crystalline material. Multiple possible defects are presented here in order of increasing dimensionality of the defects. Point defects can be (thermal and constitutional) vacancies, substitutional, interstitial and antistructure atoms. Combinations thereof can occur as in triple defects, and in Schottky and Frenkel defects. Typical line defects are dislocations, as represented in particular by the edge and screw dislocations. Their characterizing Burgers and line vectors are introduced. Dislocation production, glide and climb of dislocations (Shockley and Frank), partial dislocations are discussed. The atomic structure of planar interfaces, as grain boundaries, is extensively treated. Dislocation networks for simple tilt and twist boundaries are presented. Twin boundaries, stacking faults and antiphase boundaries (and superstructure dislocations) are introduced. Special attention is devoted to coherency and incoherency of interfaces between crystals of two phases, and its relation with coherent and incoherent (x-ray) diffraction. Finally, volume defects are presented as induced by the presence of second phase particles (in association with Orowan pinning) and pores.
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Notes
- 1.
This phenomenon of incomplete bonding (unsatisfied bonds) at the surface of a crystal is also responsible for the occurrence of a coefficient of linear thermal expansion that is larger for small crystals (with a relatively large ratio of surface to bulk atoms) than for the corresponding bulk material (cf. Sect. 3.1).
- 2.
The values reported in the literature for the equilibrium vacancy concentration of metals (near the melting point) are rather diverse. This has been discussed controversially. In a personal book, devoted to only this problem (!), points in favour of and points detracting opposing points of view have been elaborated in substantial detail, with as a conclusion the emergence of a clear “winner” (Y. Kraftmakher, Lecture Notes on Equilibrium Point Defects and Thermophysical Properties of Metals, World Scientific, Singapore, 2000). This is mentioned here to illustrate (again; cf. footnote 35 in Sect. 3.5.2.2) that fundamental questions connected with basic properties of materials, as “simple” as the equilibrium vacancy concentration, cannot be answered satisfactorily and definitively until today. The book referred to here thereby also provides another example of the progress of science, not as a smoothly proceeding development, but rather as characterized by battles of conflicting conceptions of nature, fought by their proponents.
- 3.
The first observations of (edge) dislocations, made by using a transmission electron microscope (see Sect. 6.8), were published in 1956.
- 4.
Analogous to the discussion with respect to the discoverers of the Periodic System (see the corresponding intermezzo in Sect. 2.5), the dislocation concept did not came as a thunder bolt without warning: precursors can be found in the literature. The first forerunner of the dislocation concept was proposed shortly after Friedrich, Knipping and von Laue had shown in 1912 by X-ray diffraction that crystals consist of a periodic arrangement of the constituting atoms (see the introductory part of Chap. 4). Prandtl, as early as in 1913, recognized that discrepancies between mechanical properties observed in reality and those expected for hypothetical perfect crystals necessitate the presence of crystal-structure imperfections in real crystals. See, in particular, the first part of the personal retrospective by Seeger published in International Journal of Materials Research, 100 (2009), 24–36.
- 5.
As indicated at the start of Sect. 4.1.4, the description of directions and of orientations of planes in crystals is realized with respect to the translation lattice. Therefore, we do (yet; cf. footnote 6 in Chap. 4) use the terms “lattice planes” and “lattice directions” for describing the orientations of crystallographic planes and directions in crystals.
- 6.
J.M. Burgers published this original work in 1939 first in the “Proceedings of the Royal Society of Sciences (Amsterdam)” (usually referred to as Proc. K. Akad. Wet. Amst.): two contributions (in English) in volume 42, starting at pages 293 and 378, respectively. The paper published in 1940, taken up in the list of references at the end of this chapter, can be considered as (and was meant by Burgers to be) a summary and an extension of these preceding papers. This lucid paper has been written very well, is particularly instructive and is a pleasure to read, also by students, even after, now more than, 80 years.
- 7.
The movement of kinks (cf. Sect. 5.2.5) and jogs in dislocation lines obeys the same rules as described for edge and screw dislocations in Sects. 5.2.5 and 5.2.7. Example: a jog in a screw dislocation is an edge dislocation-line segment. Thus this jog can glide along the dislocation line (cf. Sect. 5.2.5). The same jog can move with the screw dislocation only by climb (cf. Sect. 5.2.7). As compared with glide, climb is a relatively slow process and thereby the movement rate of a largely gliding screw dislocation is slowed down.
- 8.
- 9.
The Shockley partial dislocation obviously is a glissile (i.e. able to glide) dislocation.
References
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Mittemeijer, E.J. (2021). The Crystal Imperfection; Structure Defects. In: Fundamentals of Materials Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-60056-3_5
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