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Plastic-deformation mechanism in complex solids

Nature Materials volume 9, pages 332–336 (2010)Cite this article

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Abstract

In simple crystalline materials, plastic deformation mostly takes place by the movement of dislocations. Although the underlying mechanisms in these materials are well explored, in complex metallic alloys—crystalline solids containing up to thousands of atoms per unit cell—the defects and deformation mechanisms remain essentially unknown. Owing to the large lattice parameters of these materials, extended dislocation concepts are required. We investigated a typical complex metallic alloy with 156 atoms per unit cell using atomic-resolution aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopy. We found a highly complex deformation mechanism, based on the movement of a dislocation core mediating strain and separate escort defects. On deformation, the escort defects move along with the dislocation core and locally transform the material structure for the latter. This mechanism implies the coordinated movement of hundreds of atoms per elementary glide step, and nevertheless can be described by simple rearrangement of basic structural subunits.

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Figure 1: Model of the T–Al–Mn–Pd structure and electron micrograph.
Figure 2: High-resolution electron micrographs of a complex defect structure at different magnifications.
Figure 3: Schematic Burgers circuit around the dislocation core.
Figure 4: Structural implications of bow-tie-shaped tiles and the dislocation core on a tiling representation of the T-phase structure.

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Acknowledgements

We thank C. Thomas and M. Schmidt for producing the materials and J. Barthel for carrying out the HAADF-STEM image simulation. This work was supported by the 6th Framework EU Network of Excellence ‘Complex Metallic Alloys’ (Contract No. NMP3-CT-2005-500140) and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, (PAK 36).

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  1. Institut für Festkörperforschung, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, D-52425 Jülich, Germany

    M. Heggen, L. Houben & M. Feuerbacher

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  1. M. Heggen
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  2. L. Houben
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  3. M. Feuerbacher
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Contributions

M.H. and M.F. contributed equally to the design of the experiment, the conduction of the deformation tests and the preparation of the manuscript. The microstructural investigations were carried out by L.H. and M.H. and the micrographs were analysed by M.H. M.F. developed the sample material and supervised the work.

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Correspondence to M. Heggen.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Heggen, M., Houben, L. & Feuerbacher, M. Plastic-deformation mechanism in complex solids. Nature Mater 9, 332–336 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat2713

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