Examination of Dislocations in Ice

Abstract

Three techniques have been used to study dislocations in ice: etch pitting-replication, transmission electron microscopy, and X-ray topography (XT). Each is considered, and it is shown that the most useful is XT. This is because ice has low absorption of X-rays and can be produced with a low dislocation density, thus, allowing relatively thick specimens to be studied. The many useful observations that have been made with conventional XT are presented. However, the introduction of high-intensity synchrotron radiation showed that conventional XT observations are of dislocations that have undergone recovery. Thus, the important dynamic observations and measurements that have been made using synchrotron XT are also outlined. In single crystals, it has been shown that slip mainly occurs by the movement of screw and 60° a/3(1120) dislocations on the basal plane. In addition, the operation of Frank-Read sources has been clearly demonstrated, and dislocation velocities have been measured. In contrast, in polycrystals, dislocation generation has been observed to occur at stress concentrations at grain boundaries, and this completely overwhelms any lattice dislocation generation mechanisms. The nature of faulted dislocation loops has been determined in both polycrystals and single crystals.