Early-Stage Dislocation Structures inside the Dislocation Channels of Face-Centered-Cubic Metals with Point Defect Clusters

Early-stage dislocation structures inside dislocation channels of rapid-cooled and tensile-deformed aluminum single crystals were investigated by using the bright field imaging mode in a scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM-BF). Inside dislocation channels, arrays of the prismatic dislocation loops originated from dislocations of the primary slip system, i.e., (1 1 1)[1 0 1], were mainly formed. Dislocations of the primary coplanar slip systems such as (1 1 1)[0 1 1] and (1 1 1)[1 1 0] were activated owing to internal stresses caused by the primary dislocations pile-up inside the cleared channels. The activated primary coplanar dislocations left the dislocation loops elongating along the edge dislocation directions behind them. Inter-dislocation-loop interactions occur especially at the arrays of the prismatic dislocation loops originated from dislocations of the primary slip systems and produce “butterfly shape” dislocation loops. As the “butterfly shape” dislocation loops have “sessile” junctions, they should act as “obstacles” against the following multiplications and glides of the dislocations. When the interactions proceed, “tangled structures” would be formed around the arrays of the prismatic dislocation loops originated from dislocations of the primary slip system.