Competition between two Fleischer modes of cross slip in silver

Abstract

Two Fleischer cross slip modes of a dissociated screw dislocation 〈1 1 0〉/2 are quantitatively investigated in silver by molecular dynamics simulations. It is shown that contrary to previous studies where the acute angle mode is always preferred, the obtuse angle mode is also obtained. Our theoretical analysis demonstrates that the transition of the preferred mode in simulations arises from the dissociation width between the conjugate partials on the primary plane. This implies that all the interactions of dislocations have to be considered to describe the process of cross slip.