Electronic Selection Rules Controlling Dislocation Glide in bcc Metals

Jones, Travis E.; Eberhart, Mark E.; Clougherty, Dennis P.; Woodward, Chris

Electronic Selection Rules Controlling Dislocation Glide in bcc Metals

Authors

Jones, Travis E.

Eberhart, Mark E.

Clougherty, Dennis P.

Woodward, Chris

Description

The validity of the structure-property relationships governing the deformation behavior of bcc metals was brought into question with recent {\it ab initio} density functional studies of isolated screw dislocations in Mo and Ta. These existing relationships were semiclassical in nature, having grown from atomistic investigations of the deformation properties of the groups V and VI transition metals. We find that the correct form for these structure-property relationships is fully quantum mechanical, involving the coupling of electronic states with the strain field at the core of long $a/2<111>$ screw dislocations.
4 pages, 2 figures