Introduction and propagation of screw-dislocation-like defects in an amorphous Lennard-Jones solid

Abstract

Screw dislocations have been introduced into a parallelepiped amorphous Lennard-Jones solid both quasiintrinsically and extrinsically using a computer molecular-statics technique. It was found that under a certain boundary condition, the greater the Burger's strength of the introduced dislocation, the more stable and more compact the state of the amorphous solid after relaxation. On applying shear strains at a given rate, both the intrinsic and the extrinsic screw dislocations propagate through the amorphous solid. The calculated onset shear stress for moving dislocations is about 4–6% of the shear modulus of the amorphous solid.