HREM imaging of screw dislocation core structures in bcc metals

Abstract

ABSTRACTQuantitative High Resolution Electron Microscopy (HREM) is used to characterize the in-plane displacements of atoms around a screw dislocation core in bcc molybdenum. The in-plane displacements have an important effect on the bulk mechanical properties of bcc metals and alloys. However, the largest displacements are predicted to be less than 10 pm, requiring that the atom positions in an HREM image be determined to sub-pixel accuracy. In order to calculate the displacements the positions of the atom columns in the undistorted crystal must be determined precisely from the information available in the HREM image. An algorithm for such a task is briefly discussed and the technique applied to several HREM images. It is seen that the atomic displacements are predominantly due to surface relaxation (i.e. Eshelby twist) of a thin TEM foil, thereby masking the finer displacements of the dislocation core. Nye tensor plots, which map the resultant Burgers vector at each point of a distorted crystal, are also used to characterize the core structure. Although the large displacements from the Eshelby twist were completely removed, no signal from the dislocation core region was observed.