Theory of Dislocation Mobility in Pure Slip

Jens Lothe
Citation: Journal of Applied Physics 33, 2116 (1962); doi: 10.1063/1.1728907
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2116

ROTHMAN,

fONES,

GRAY,

rial by Adda et al.,19 which is about what one would

expect if their D values were slightly increased by diffusion along~grain boundaries.20 Adda et at. did not
observe any anisotropy; however, visual observation of
autoradiographs of polycrystalline samples is a less
reliable method of detecting anisotropy than the method
used by us. Our D[lOOJ and D[ool] are factors of ten and
twenty or sixty higher than those measured by Resnick
et al. 2l on "perfect" single crystals. This difference
probably is not due to diffusion along mosaic boundaries
in our crystals for the reasons given above; the discrepancy is better attributed to the experimental
uncertainty of the data of Resnick et al.
19 Y. Adda, A. Kirianenko, and C. Mairy, Compt. rend. 253,
445 (1961).
20 R. E. Hoffman and D. Turnbull, J. Appl. Phys. 22, 634 (1951).
21 R. Resnick and L. L. Seigle, J. Nuclear Materials 5,5 (1962).

JOURNAL

OF APPLIED

PHYSICS

AND

HARKNESS

CONCLUSIONS

We conclude that we have measured volume selfdiffusion in alpha uranium, and that it is highly anisotropic, as expected from the structure. Diffusion in the
corrugated layers, where the jump distances are small
and the bonding is covalent and strong, is much faster
than diffusion out of such layers. However, there are
indications of fast diffusion between the corrugated
planes along dislocations.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The assistance of M. Essling, E. S. Fisher, A. Hrobar,

S. A. Moore, M. H. Mueller, L. J. Nowicki, M. D. Odie,
and D. Rokop, and discussions with H. H. Chiswik,
E. S. Fisher, and L. T. Lloyd are gratefully acknowledged. This project was begun by R. Wei!.

VOLUME 33.

NUMBER

JUNE 1962

Theory of Dislocation Mobility in Pure Slip

JENS LOTHE*

Metals Research Laboratory, Carnegie Institute of Technology, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

(Received July 19, 1961; revised manuscript received November 9, 1961)
The mobility during glide of uniformly moving dislocations or dislocation segments supposed not to be
obstructed by any Peierls' barrier is estimated. For a straight freely moving dislocation, the strong anharmonicities in the core region, the thermoelastic (edge dislocation) and the phonon viscosity effect give
rise to a drag stress at ordinary temperatures T"'fJ, fJ being the Debye temperature, of the order
,,",,-,f.;.XV/c
in insulators. In metals the thermoelastic effect is negligible, while the core anharmonicity effect and the
phonon viscosity effect will be of the same order of magnitude as in insulators. In the above formula,
E=thermal energy density, V=dislocation velocity, and c=velocity of shear waves. The scattering of
phonons by the dislocation also causes a drag stress at ordinary temperatures of the order of magnitude of
the above formula.
All of the above mentioned contributions to the drag stress go rapidly to zero with decreasing temperature.
However, if the dislocation is constrained by the Peierls' barrier except at freely moving kinks, the kink
mobility determines the dislocation mobility. It is shown that the scattering of phonons of a half-wavelength
longer than the kink width causes a drag stress which may outweigh all other contributions up to ordinary
temperatures, and which persists with decreasing temperature as T down to a temperature "'8b/D, where
b=the lattice spacing constant and D is the kink width.

I. INTRODUCTION AND_OUTLINE

far, a discussion and interrelation of the various

SOtheories
for dislocation mobility is lacking. In this
paper we briefly reconsider the various dissipative
mechanisms suggested and discuss, in order of magnitude, their effect on dislocation mobility. Some estimates
of the dissipation that result because of the strong
anharmonicities in the core region are also presented.
Care is taken to represent the various contributions in
equations which are easily compared.
Only dislocations, or dislocation segments, that can
move freely without thermal activation, will be con* On leave from Fysisk Institutt, Universitetet, Blindern,
Oslo, Norway.

sidered. Internal friction experiments in copperl and

NaCl2 have shown that in these crystals there is a
modulus defect, quite constant with temperature, with
an accompanying internal friction that seems to tend
to zero as the temperature tends to zero, indicating
either freely moving dislocations or freely moving
kinks.3.4
At the end of the paper we shall make some separate
considerations on kinks. It will appear that the mobility
of a smooth dislocation will have a somewhat different
A. Alersand D. O. Thompson, J. Appl. Phys. 32, 283 (1961).
R. B. Gordon (private communication).
3 J. Lothe and J. P. Hirth, Phys. Rev. 115, 543 (1959).
4 J. Lothe, Phys. Rev. 117, 704 (1960).
1 G.
2

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DISLOCATION

temperature characteristic than the mobility of a

dislocation with a kinked core structure.
We think that the idea of some dislocation segments
being able to move freely, without any activation, need
not be an approximation. A possible "Peierls' barrier"
to the motion of a kink in a close-packed metal would
most likely be so small that it would be completely
obliterated by zero-point motion. Thus, at very low
temperatures, we would expect the kink to move
without friction.
II. RELAXATION EFFECTS

Relaxation effects in the matrix around the moving

dislocation leads to heat production. The rate of heat
production around the moving dislocation unequivocally determines the dislocation mobility: The dislocation will move with constant velocity when the rate of
heat production equals the rate of energy supply from
the external mechanism that provides a shear stress
acting on the dislocation.
A. Bulk Relaxations

Eshelby 5 has shown that the thermoelastic effect will

give rise to heat production around a moving dislocation. The thermoelastic effect is appreciable only for
the moving edge-like dislocation, where irreversible
heat flow will take place between the compressional
and dilatational side. Recently, Mason 6 suggested that
pure shear deformations should be accompanied by
thermal relaxation effects and energy dissipation. This
effect comes about when the vibrational frequencies in
a lattice do not change only with volume changes, as
assumed in the simple Gruneisen theory, but also
depend on shear strain. The phonon-viscosity effect,
as this effect was termed by Mason, would be equally
effective for both edge and screw dislocations.
In the theories for the thermoelastic effect and the
phonon viscosity effect it is necessary to introduce a
cutoff, defining a cylinder around the dislocation core
within which the theories do not apply. We shall
reconsider what is the proper cutoff. In particular the
result for the phonon-viscosity effect depends sensitively
on the choice of cutoff.
1. The Thermoelastic Effect

Eshelby 5 calculated the thermoelastic heat production

per cycle for a vibrating edge dislocation. Because of a
term logarithmic in the frequency, it is not obvious
from Eshelby's result what the stress needed to keep
the dislocation in uniform motion is. Weiner7 has
considered this problem, and for a rigorous analysis
Weiner's paper should be consulted. In order to get an
approximate, but simple and analytical, result we have
6
6
7

2117

MOBILITY IN PURE SLIP

J. D. Eshelby, Proc. Roy. Soc. (London) A197, 396 (1957).

W. P. Mason, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 32, 458 (1960).
J. H. Weiner, J. App!. Phys. 29, 1305 (1958).

calculated the problem by essentially the same procedure as used by Eshelby. For simplicity the cutoff
radius 1 was introduced as a cutoff in k space, k max =7r/l.
The resulting equation for the stress u needed to move
the edge dislocation at a speed V is, with Poisson's
ration equal to i,

1 IJ.b Cp-C.
u=----ln(7rK/lV)XV,

70

(1)

Cp

when 7rK/lV1.
Here the symbols are: b = magni tude of Burgers
vector; lJ.=shear modulus; K=K/cp=thermal diffusivity (thermal conductivity divided by specific heat per
unit volume); Cp, c.=specific heats per unit volume at
constant pressure and volume, respectively; and
1= cutoff radius for the dislocation core. An asymptotic
correspondence between Eq. (1) and Eshelby's formula 8
as 1---> 0 can easily be demonstrated.
The cutoff 1 cannot be smaller than the lattice
distance b. However, the conditions for the macroscopic
concept of thermoelastic relaxation to apply are not
satisfied that close to the core. A volume element to
which we apply macroscopic thermal concepts must
have a linear dimension at least as large as the phonon
mean free path in an insulator, or the electron mean
free path in a metal. Thus, it is natural to put
l=Ap (insulator),

(2)

l=Ae (metal),

where Ap and Ae are the phonon mean free path and

electron mean free path, respectively. Applying thermoelastic theory to closer distances of the core would,
for an insulator, lead to heat transmission faster than
sound, which is not possible.
Other factors equal, the thermoelastic effect is
strongest in materials of low thermal conductivity.
Thus, for an estimate of the maximum contribution let
us consider a typical insulator. By making use of the
thermodynamic relation
(3)

where a is the volume expansion coefficient and B the

bulk modulus, combined with the approximate relations
(4)

and
(5)

where Kp is the lattice thermal conductivity and

'Y'" 1.5 is Gruneisen's constant, we can rewrite Eq. (1) to

U=~~(CvT)ln(~)x~,
28Ap

(6)

8 In Eshelby's formula (4), reference 5, a factor 1/50 should be

substituted for the factor 1/10 occurring in that formula. The
factor 1/50 can be derived from his formula (a24).

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JENS LOTHE

2118

when Vc. Poisson's ratio has been taken as ! in the

relation between J.I. and B. c denotes the velocity of
sound. 9
At ordinary temperatures, in the region 0 to 0/2 it
is reasonable to put cvT/2", E, where E is the thermal
energy density and Ap'" (S-30)b. With V in say the
region "'c/100, the estimate of Eq. (6) for T",O and
Ap",Sb is

right, as done by Mason,6 to determine the relaxation

time from the equation
(11)
where Ap is given by Eq. (4).
Then, employing Mason's analysis for the moving
screw dislocation, but only for the material outside a
cylinder of radius Ap around the core, we obtain

(7)
In metals, because of a higher thermal conductivity
by a factor typically of about 30, the thermoelastic
contribution will be correspondingly smaller.

The difference between the adiabatic and isothermal

bulk modulus is
(8)

For an isotropic body the shear modulus J.I. is related

to the bulk modulus B and Poisson's ratio v by the
equation
(9)
J.I.= 3(1-2v)B/[2(1 v)].

In the elementary theory of Gruneisen's constant the

vibrational frequencies are taken, on the average, to
depend on the volume only, 'Y= -d InO/d InV. In this
model we would have 11J.1. = J.l.ad - J.l.is = 0, corresponding to
v=! in Eq. (9) for the change. If, on the other hand,
we take the frequencies in a wave only to be modified
by longitudinal strain parallel to the wave vector, we
should rather put v=O in Eq. (9) to calculate 11J.1. from
I1B;

(10)
Equation (10), thus, is a reasonable upper estimate
of the difference between the adiabatic and isothermal
shear modulus. It should be understood that, in this
context, adiabatic means that energy is not exchanged
between vibrational modes in the same volume element.
The additional shear stiffness during adiabatic deformation comes about because phonons with wave vector
in the BC' direction become "hotter" during shear,
while those in the AD' direction become "cooler"
(Fig. 1).
In terms of three phonon processes it would take
Umklapp processes to establish equilibrium between
BC' and AD' phonons. Thus, it should be approximately
FIG. 1. When the volume element
ABDC is sheared adiabatically to take
the shape ABD'C', phonons traveling in
the direction BC' become "hotter" and
those traveling in the direction AD'
B

become "cooler."

Because of the approximate nature of the calculations, we

will denote the shear wave velocity as well as the average sound
velocities appropriate to the various considerations in this paper
by the same symbol c.
9

where

7]

Vc,

(12)

is the phonon viscosity

7]= TI1j.t.

(13)

By Eqs. (4), (9), and (11), and with 'Y'" 1.5, Eq. (12)
can be written as

2. The Phonon Viscosity Effect

CT=7]b/(47rAp2)X V,

(14)

and, in the region T",O, with the same approximation as

used for Eq. (7),

CT"'E/lOXV/c,

Vc.

(15)

The result for an edge dislocation would not be much

different.
It must be borne in mind that Eq. (15), based on
Eq. (10), is an upper estimate.
According to Kittel,lO at ordinary temperatures T",O,
the relaxation time for phonons is about the same in
insulators and metals. In metals the phonon-phonon
relaxation time Tpp is about the same as the phononelectron relaxation time Tpe. Thus, the phonon mean
free path and the phonon viscosity in a metal should
typically be about the same as in an insulator, and the
phonon viscosity contribution to dislocation damping
should not be very different in insulators and metals.

B. Relaxations in the Core Region

It remains to estimate the relaxation contributions
inside the cutoff cylinder or radius r=A. The contributions will be divided into two main classes:

(1) A volume contribution, for which the relaxation

strengths I1B and 11j.t, Eqs. (8) and (10), are supposed
to apply on the average.
(2) A misfit plane contribution, in which the anharmonicities are so great and of such a nature that
they must be considered separately.
This division corresponds to the Peierls-Nabarro
treatment of the dislocation, where two elastic solids
are joined by a misfit plane.

1. The Core Volume Contribution

In the calculation on the thermoelastic effect for
an edge dislocation in a metal, only the matter outside
10 C. Kittel, Introduction to Solid State Physics (John Wiley &
Sons, Inc., New York, 1956), 2nd ed., p. 149.

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DISLOCATION

MOBILITY IN

a cylinder of radius r=A. was considered. Applying the

ordinary theory of thermal conduction within this
cylinder would lead to a phonon relaxation time
smaller than Tpe. As at ordinary temperatures T=Ap/c
"'Tpp'" Tpe, such a procedure must be wrong. Rather,
the various volume elements in the region we consider
have a single relaxation time Tp . In each volume
element, phonon energy is transferred to the electron
gas and carried out of the region under consideration,
until equilibrium is established within a time T'" Ap/c.
Thus, in analogy with Eq. (13), we define a bulk
viscosity X,
(16)
X=T!!.B.
Then, for the region between r=A. and r=Ap for an
edge dislocation, with ,,= t and 'Y'" 1.5, a simple
calculation following the treatment on phonon viscosity
gives, when A.A p,

1 c.Tb V
(T"'- --X -,
40 Ap

V c.

(17)

1 1- 2" b
8=- - - -[ sine[.
21r 1-" r

(T"'e . Tb/ (125Ap) XV/c.

,,= t, the average value of 8 in the cylinder r=Ap is

2. The Misfit Plane Contribution

In Fig. 2 is shown a model of an edge dislocation core.

We consider each atom in the two rows as an independent oscillator, as in the Einstein model of a solid.
Consider atomic vibrations in the x direction. An
atom such as B, which is in an unstable position relative
to the atoms below it, will have a lower frequency of
vibration than the tightly bound atom A. We will take
the coupling between the atoms on the same side of
the misfit plane to be independent of the position of
the dislocation, and consider the coupling of an atom in
one row with the atoms in the other row to vary with a
sinusoidal potential of the Peierls-Nabarro type

(T)

e
W=-8W
- - .(V)2
2Ap
2Ap/c
e

-<)V(x)

av(xo)

ax

ax

a2V(xo)
---!!.x

where Xo is the mean position, and !!.x is the amplitude

of vibration. Taking the time average, the middle term
vanishes, and expressing the result in terms of frequency
of vibration" and energy of vibration E,

_
aV(x) E a,,2
F = - - - - - -,
ax
2,,2 ax

Applying this strain adiabatically to a rod of radius Ap

increases the thermal energy per unit length by

If the strain is maintained for a time t= T, 8W is

dissipated. If the dislocation is moving with the
velocity of sound c, we can say it strains c/2A p cylinders
per unit time and maintains the strain for a time
t=2Ap/e on each of them. Since the dissipation per
cylinder is proportional to T/t when t> T, i.e., near
isothermal conditions, the rate of energy dissipation
per unit length for a dislocation moving with velocity
V is

(23)

where x is the position relative to the other row and b

is the nearest neighbor distance.
The mean force on one oscillating atom, exerted by
the atoms in the other row, is found by expanding
Eq. (23),

(19)

(20)

(22)

Consideration of shear relaxation within the cylinder

r=Ap would obviously give a comparable effect.

V(x)= Vo cos(21rx/b),

(18)

2119

the stress corresponding to Eq. (21) is

For relaxations in the region b <r <A p , the relaxation

time must be T"'Apjc or smaller. The volume now
under consideration must be looked upon as one volume
element, as it is meaningless to maintain concepts such
as a temperature gradient within a volume of extension
smaller than Ap.
For a rough upper estimate consider an edge dislocation, and consider dilatational as well as compressional
adiabatic strain to increase the temperature instead of
producing no net increase. Let 8 denote the numerical
value of the compression around an edge dislocation,

With

PURE SLIP

(25)

where, for simplicity, we now let x denote average

position.
Thus, to move the oscillator, we must apply a mean
force F to it. The term aV(x)/ax, averaged appropriately over all atoms in the same row, would only
give a possible Peierls' force, which we postulate to

(21)

Inserting for the various terms and putting 'Y'" 1.5,

FIG.

2. The core of a pure edge dislocation. Over a width of about

five atomic distances the misfit is severe.

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JENS LOTHE

2120

rows in the misfit region is

be zero. The second term

v=V/n.

E av 2

(26)

Fvibr = - 2v 2 ax

gives rise to a change in vibrational energy. If the

oscillator is moved with a velocity V, F vibr does work
at the rate

To keep a uniform dislocation velocity the applied

shear stress must supply the necessary energy for the
heat production
OEaV2)
(35)
ub 2 V=n - - v.
2v 2 ax

<

(27)

Fvibr'V=--'V,

2v 2 ax
which goes to increase the energy of vibration. If the
increase in vibrational energy radiates out, heat is
supplied to the surrounding matrix. As the average
vibrational energy of the atoms in the misfit plane is
constant, the average value of Eq. (27) must determine
the rate at which heat is produced.
Each oscillator is coupled to its neighboring atoms,
with which vibrational energy is then exchanged.
Denote the relaxation time for energy exchange by T.
Because of the strong coupling to other atoms, the
relaxation time will only be a few periods, say roughly,

Insertion of Eqs. (28), (31), and (33) and use of the

approximate relation vob=c/2 then gives

3Eo EoehVlkT(OV)2 V
u=(271')LX-.
nb3 kT
Vo
c

dE
-=

dt

1
E av 2
--[E-Eeq(T)J+--v,
T
2v 2 ax

(29)

u"'f/12XV/c.

Eeq(T) =hv/ (ehplkT -1).

(30)

v= vo-ov cos(271'x/b).

(31)

Now put
By expanding to the first power in ov/vo we can rewrite
Eq. (29) as

dE 1
EO( EoehVlkT)OV
-+-(E-Eo)= - - 1
- cos(271'vt/b)
dt T
T
kT
Vo
271'Eovov
b

Vo

sin (271'vt/b) ,

(32)

where Eo is Eq. (30) with v= Vo.

Only that part of the solution of Eq. (32) which is
in phase with sin (271'vt/b) contributes to the time
average of Eq. (27). Denoting this part oE, we obtain
when vT/b<.<l,
VT

oE= 271'E ob

EoehplkT ov
- sin(2'lfvt/b).
kT Vo

(37)

Although we must allow for considerable uncertainty

in the choice of the important term ov/vo, it seems
unlikely that we have made a significant underestimate
for a dislocation with such a core structure that the
Peierls' barrier is unimportant.
III. PHONON SCATTERING

where Eeq(T) is the equilibrium value

+-- -

(36)

Connecting Vo in Eq. (23) with the shear modulus, it

seems reasonable to put ov/vo"'lo. We take n",5 to
be a typical measure of the width. Furthermore, we
introduce the thermal energy density f",3E o/b 3, and
approximate the factor Eo exp(hv/kT)/kT to the high
temperature value 1. Formula (36) then becomes

(28)
The differential equation determining the vibrational
energy of a moving oscillator is then

(34)

(33)

Let the width of the core misfit region be nb. If the

dislocation is moving with a velocity V, then, on the
average, the relative velocity between the two atomic

In his pioneer work, Leibfriedll argued that scattering

of thermal waves should lead to a drag force on a moving
dislocation. It was made plausible that the quasimomentum of elastic waves and the force on a dislocation are related in the same way as the corresponding
quantities in mechanics. It has recently been shown, by
the present author,12 that scattering of elastic waves
by a dislocation does not generally lead to a force on the
dislocation. Only in the case of a straight screw dislocation constrained to move on only one slip plane has it
been shown rigorously that elastic waves exert a
radiation force on the dislocation in the way described
by Leibfried. It should be noted that this is true whether
the scattering is due to induced dislocation oscillations
or anharmonicities in the dislocation strain field. In
reference 12 the theory was worked out with a general
strain-energy function that could contain terms other
than quadratic terms in strain.
However, Leibfried's work makes it very plausible
that when only one slip plane need be considered, scattering does generally produce a radiation force consistent
with the balancing of quasi-momentum. We shall assume
that this is true.
In the treatment to follow, the dislocation)s con11
11

G. Leibfried, Z. Physik 127, 344 (1950).

J. Lothe, Phys. Rev. 122, 78 (1961).

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DISLOCATION

MOBILITY IN

sidered to move in an isotropic flux of phonons which

collide with the dislocation, but which do not collide
with each other, i.e., the phonon mean free path is
assumed infinite. For such an approximation to be
adequate, the phonon mean free path must at least be
longer than the dislocation scattering width. 13 However,
no clear criterion for when the approximation of noncolliding phonons is valid has been established; we can
only assert that at lower temperatures this picture must
be right and offers an opportunity for complementary
and more reliable estimates than the previous core
considerations based on simple relaxation considerations. Fortunately, it will also turn out that the high
temperature values for (J derived in this picture are of
the same order of magnitude as the more important
contributions considered in the first part of this paper;
thus not too much ambiguity as to the correct order of
magnitude of (J at ordinary temperatures arises. At
low temperatures some of the effects to be studied give
a higher value for (J than the relaxation effects and
should then be the dominant effects.
Consider a stationary dislocation placed in an
isotropic "gas" of phonons. The phonons are scattered
by the dislocation; sayan energy W is scattered out
radially symmetric about the dislocation per unit time.
However, if the dislocation is moving with a velocity V,
the scattered radiation is asymmetric and gives off a
net amount of quasi-momentum W/cXV/c per unit
time to the component parallel to the dislocation
motion, and thus a stress of the order

(38)
is needed to maintain uniform dislocation motion.4
The exact coefficient of proportionality in Eq. (38)
depends on the wavelength dependence of scattering
cross section. For our purposes, Eq. (38) is adequate,
and the problem is then to find W.
Two important cases will be studied: (1) the scattering from a smooth infinite free dislocation, and (2) the
scattering from a free kink.

2121

PURE SLIP

According to Eshelby,16 a straight screw dislocation

vibrating as a whole with amplitude A radiates at the
rate
. w 7I"pb 2A 2w 2
(39)
W=---271"
8
per unit length. However, for a dislocation line not
vibrating as a whole, each element does not radiate as
if it were part of an infinite stiff line. From an electromagnetic analogy,t6 it is seen that the emission of
radiation is proportional to sinz", where cost?-='A/'A D
(Fig. 3).
Thus, the energy emitted per unit length per unit
time is
.

W=L:
w,{}

w
sin~'7I"pb2A2(w,")w2/8,

271"

(40)

where A (w,t?-) is the amplitude of vibration induced by

a shear wave of frequency w striking the dislocation at
an angle ".
By the assumption of mass control,
(41)

A (w,t?-) =(J R(w,t?-)b/ (tn<J1-),

where (JR is the amplitude of resolved shear stress in

the incident shear wave. The effective mass m is taken as

(42)
corresponding to a wavelength "-' 7b. m cannot be lower
than about half this value, as the core misfit energy
contributes to the effective mass in the same way as the
strain energyY
Summed up for all the thermal waves, Eq. (40) then
gives, together with Eq. (38),
1
(J"-' { 16b

JkmaxE(ck,T)kdk }X-,
V
c

71"
kmax =-,
b

(43)

A. The Infinite Smooth Dislocation Line

1. Scattering by Induced Vibrations

Consider a screw dislocation, and consider it to

interact with shear waves only. A shear wave whose
wave vector if, makes an angle with the dislocation will
induce a wave motion of wave vector k cost?- on the
dislocation. Thus, if the velocity of a free wave motion
on the dislocation line is CD, shear waves for which
coSt?-<C/CD will drive the dislocation beyond resonance,
the vibrations are mass-controlled. We shall assume that
CD <C so that all induced vibrations are mass-controlled.
Refined calculations by Leibfried14 have shown that in
many cases CD is appreciably smaller than c.
F. R. N. Nabarro, Proc. Roy. Soc. (London) A209, 278 (1951).
G. Leibfried, Annual Progress Report, August 1959, Solid
State Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
13
14

FIG. 3. Dislocation vibrations induced by a shear wave whose

vector of propagation makes an angle

(J

with the dislocation line.

15 The author is grateful to Dr. Eshelby for making him aware

that formula (39) above was not printed correctly in reference 5.
16 ]. A. Stratton, ElectromagNetic Theory (McGraw-Hill Book
Company, Inc., New York, 19(1), Chap. 8.
17 G. Leibfried and H. D. Dietze, Z. Physik. 12(1, 790 (1949).

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lENS LOTHE

2122

I..oe:========~==--m

0.1

O/T

FIG. 4. Curve I: .IT, normalized to 1 for eiT. Curve II: ulT,

normalized to 1 for eIT=O, u is given by Eq. (43). Curve III:
the constant 1.

where

Iiw
E(w,T)

- - - - , w=ck.

e"w/kT-1

(44)

In the high temperature limit, with E(w,T)=kT

and E"'V3kT/b3, Eq. (43) becomes

u"-'E/10XV/c,

(45)

which is precisely the formula originally given by

LeibfriedY
It is important to note that U as given by Eq. (43)
decreases more slowly with temperature than the
thermal energy E, which is proportional to

'" fokmaxE (ck, T)k2dk.

The temperature dependences of E and u are compared
in Fig. 4.
If the phonon half-wavelength is small compared with
the width of the core misfit region, the phonon does not
tend to move the dislocation core as a whole. Nevertheless, we shall expect Eq. (43) to be a fair estimate up
to higher temperatures because of another equally
effective scattering mechanism.
We will picture the core misfit strip in the glide plane
as a cut of some width 2a, over which shear stress
cannot be sustained. Consider shear waves of a wavelength A <2a. The shear waves will be strongly reflected
at the cut; consider total reflection. If A2a, specular
reflection takes place. During specular reflection the
component of wave momentum parallel to the plane of
the cut is conserved, and the scattering will give rise to
no force. However, scattering at the edges of the cut
will cause the reflected beam not to carry, in the
direction of reflection, exactly the same amount of
quasi-momentum as the incident beam, and a net force
on the dislocation results (Fig. 5).
From the analogy with diffraction at a slit,18 the
edge effects are estimated to represent an effective
18 L. D. Landau and E. M. Lifshitz, Classical Theory of Fields
(Pergamon Press, New York, 1958), p. 167.

scattering width A/27r. For the phonons of shortest

wavelength the scattering width would be b/7r. In the
high temperature limit, the shear waves make up j of
the thermal energy. In the naive picture of 3 independent directions of propagation, only i of these waves are
scattered. It is reasonable then to estimate that at
high temperatures quasi-momentum is scattered off
unit length of the dislocation at a rate "'Ejib/7l'
'" Eb/lO so that a drag stress on the dislocation of the
order of magnitude of Eq. (45) again results.
Of course, in the region of change-over of dominant
mechanism, Eq. (45) would hardly give the right
temperature dependence.

2. Scattering Due to the Dislocation Strain Field

According to Ziman19 we must expect a considerably
smaller average interaction between shear strains and
elastic waves than for compressional and dilatational
strains. In view of this, it is reasonable to consider
scattering only in the compressional-dilatational field
around an edge dislocation, in which case we can use
Gruneisen's constant ' with some confidence, and take
the results to be typical for strain field scattering at a
dislocation.
The dilatational strain around an edge dislocation
is given by Eq. (18), and with v=i, the change of frequency of a phonon in this strain field is
'w b
ow=-- sinO,

(46)

4'trr
which gives a perturbation energy V p to cause scattering
yhwb

Vp=hOw=-- - sinO.
4'trr

(47)

Using the perturbation equation (47) in Ziman's

treatment of scattering at a dislocation by the Born
approximation, we deduce a total effective scattering
width
(48)

FIG. S. A parallel
beam of elastic waves
is reflected as a divergent beam from the
core misfit plane, and
a net force on the
dislocation results.

-r
I

Quosimomentum component
aSSOciated with a force on /
the dislocation.

19 J. M. Ziman, Electrons and Phonons (Oxford University

Press, New;'york, 1960), p. 230.

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DISLOCATION

MOBILITY IN

which agrees well with Klemens' 20 estimate. With

k max =7r/b and 'Y"'1.5, the cross section for phonons of
highest energy becomes fJ",b/2.
However, for dislocations for which the Peierls'
barrier is negligible, Eq. (46) would not apply to a
distance r",b within the center (see Fig. 2). It is reasonable to suppose the core to be relaxed within a cylinder
of radius r"'3b, and that the perturbation potential in
this region is approximately given by Eq. (46) with 3b
substituted for r. Using instead of Eq. (46) a perturbation potential

2123

PURE SLIP
--0--

Peierls' volle

Peierls' volley

FIG. 6. A kink of width D brings the dislocation from one Peierls'

valley into a neighboring one.

so that the equations of motion for the waves are

(55)

(49)
we derive a scattering cross section

fJ='YWk/16(1

+4k2A2) i,

(SO)

which for the high energy phonons, with A",3b and

'Y'" 1.5, gives a constant cross section

fJ",b/40.

(51)

Thus, with j of the phonons being scattered, the drag

stress at ordinary temperatures will be

u"'e/60X V /e.

(52)

According to Klemens,20 Eq. (48) may be an underestimate by as much as a factor of the order 10. The
uncertainty is due to lack of precise knowledge about
the anharmonic constants and the approximations
involved in the Born scattering formula. With the same
uncertainty in Eq. (52), the drag stress due to strain
field scattering might be as high as

u"'-'e/5X V /e.

(53)

B. Scattering at a Kink. Kink Mobility21

When the Peierls' barrier is significant, the moving
element will be the kink, which is a short dislocation
segment taking the dislocation from one Peierls' valley
to a neighboring valley (Fig. 6). The kink is supposed
to be able to translate freely along the dislocation, and
the action of thermal waves of wavelength >./2> D,
where D is the kink width, will be to vibrate the entire
kink and make it radiate energy.
Consider a kink in a screw dislocation. The action of
the kink on the elastic waves, for small kink displacements, can be deduced from a Hamiltonian22

Here, x is the displacement of the kink, u is the stress

amplitude of the elastic wave, UR is the stress amplitude
resolved onto the kink, and V is the total volume.
For forced vibrations

mCY+w2y)=Fo singt,

(56)

the rate at which energy is given to the oscillator when

y=O and y=O at t=O is, taking the dominant term,
F02

sin(g-w)t 7rF02

--8(g-w).
4m

Fy=-

4m

g-w

(57)

By treating Eq. (55) this way and summing over all

shear lattice waves, it is found that for an oscillation
x= A singt, the rate of energy radiation is

(58)
The kink vibrations are caused by incident thermal
waves
(59)
where mk is the effective kink mass. From Eqs. (58) and
(59) we deduce that all the incident waves up to some
k max cause the kink to radiate at a rate

(60)
Considering only waves for which Aj2> D to vibrate the
kink as a whole, we must put

(61)
According to Lothe and Hirth,3 the width of the
kink is

P. G. Klemens in Solid State Physics, edited by F. Seitz and

D. Turnbull (Academic Press Inc., New York, 1958), Vol. 7,
p.22.
21 The author acknowledges gratefully that Dr. Eshelby gave
him the opportunity to compare with unpUblished results obtained
by Dr. Eshelby by methods different from those employed in
this paper.
22 It can be shown, by use of the definition of a force on a
dislocation and the reciprocal theorem of linear elasticity, that
this procedure is right.
20

D=;7r(

)1

21rCTp

where S is the line tension and

and the kink energy is

Up

(62)
the Peierls' barrier,
(63)

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lENS LOTHE

2124
when T>6b/D, Eq. (60) becomes

b
T>f:J-

v'

(64)

and the corresponding stress is

b

T>(}-.
D

(65)

In a close packed metal, say copper, the Bordoni peak

experiments23 indicate as typical values W k'" 10-2j.tb 3
and D", 7b, yielding

(J''''110(3kT/b )XV/c,
3

T>f:J/7.

(66)

An estimate of the effect of thermal waves of halfwavelength appreciably shorter than D is needed. To
this end it should be fair to consider the kink as a
segment of length D with a velocity normal to itself.
The thermoelastic effect and the phonon viscosity effect
are negligible for a kink because of the short range of
the stress field. The most important damping mechanisms are then those of Sec. III A, and a likely value of
the stress due to those sources at a higher temperature is

(J'",~(3kT)~X~
5

b3

c'

Before such a rather complicated analysis is attempted,

we cannot do much better than to introduce a cutoff of
the order of magnitude of Eq. (61) and estimate the
effect of phonons of short wavelength in the manner
explained above.
Finally, we want to present some considerations on
the self-consistency of the treatment of kink mobility.
It must be required that the damping stress Eq. (67)
does not damp the kink to the extent that for k <k max
=rr/D the kink motion is not mass controlled. Thus,
it must be required that
3

1(3kT) b Wmax
mkWmai>- - - -X--.
5 b3 D
c

(68)

This inequality reduces to 1>3kTD/j.tb4, which is well

fulfilled up to ordinary temperatures for reasonable
kink widths, say D",7b and 3kT",1O-2 j.tb3 Similarly,
it can be asserted that the direct radiation Eq. (64) is
much more important than the energy radiation taking
place because the oscillations are damped by the
stress Eq. (67).
The radiation Eq. (58) gives rise to a frequency
dependent back force on the kink,

(69)
(67)

which is seen to be smaller than Eq. (66) by a factor

2/7. As W k ",l/D, it is general that Eq. (65) will be the
more important contribution. This rough estimate of
the importance of the short wavelength phonons ignores
that the kink is of finite length and that important
scattering effects might arise at the transition from the
kink part of the dislocation to that part lying in the
Peierls' valley. However, the kink width D will be of the
same order of magnitude as the wavelength of waves
of the frequency with which the dislocation vibrates in
the Peierls' barrier. Thus, elastic waves of shorter
wavelength will vibrate the dislocation lying in the
Peierls' valley beyond resonance, i.e., the vibrations
will be controlled by the "mass" and the line tension
rather than the Peierls' barrier. It follows that the
short wavelength phonons will make the entire dislocation radiate quite uniformly, with little distinction
between the kink segment and that part of the dislocation lying in the Peierls' valley, and thus no significant
scattering effects for short wavelength phonons at the
transition between the kink and the Peierls' barrier
locked dislocation would be expected.
A satisfactory theoretical treatment of the effect
of short wavelength phonons would require a model
which not only involves the translation of the kink with
preservation of shape, but which also includes all the
other degrees of freedom of the entire dislocation.
23 D. O. Thompson and D. K. Holmes J. Appl Phys 30 525
(1959).

.
.,

For this force to be less than the inertial reaction, the

inequality
(70)
must be fulfilled. This inequality reduces to 2c/D>n.
For Qmax=ck max [Eq. (61)J, this inequality fails to be
fulfilled by a factor 2/7r. Thus, for Qmax, the oscillations
are controlled about equally much by inertia and radiation resistance. This circumstance corresponds to the
well-known fact that, in the interaction of an electron
with radiation of a wavelength shorter than the
"radius" of the electron, the electron motion is radiation
resistance controlled.
Taking the effect of radiation resistance on the
kink oscillations into account would not change the
order of magnitude of our estimate. The fact remains
that the kink oscillations induced by the waves Qmax
are largely independent of the effect of shorter wavelengths on the kink and give rise to a scattering overshadowing the scattering due to the short wavelength
phonons. The mobility will be proportional to T down
to T",f:Jb/D.
IV. SUMMARY, DISCUSSION, AND CONCLUSION

There is evidence that under some conditions dislocations can move freely without thermal activation. 1 ,2
This behavior is to be expected when the Peierls'
barrier for the straight dislocation or for the kink
segment is broken down by zero-point motion. The
various factors determining the mobility of dislocations
experiencing no Peierls' barrier have been discussed in
some detail.

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DISLOCATION

MOBILITY IN

Two bulk relaxation processes are important: the

thermoelastic effect and the shear viscosity effect.
In insulators at temperatures of the order the Debye
temperature (J the thermoelastic effect and the shear
viscosity effect each give rise to a drag stress of the
order
(71)
but it should be kept in mind that the above estimate
for the shear-viscosity contribution may be an overestimate. In metals the thermoelastic effect is unimportant, while the shear viscosity effect should be of about
the same magnitude as in insulators. With decreasing
temperature these effects go rapidly to zero, as cpT/ Ap.
Estimates of relaxation contributions in or near the
core, where the theories of thermoelasticity and
phonon viscosity do not readily apply, have been
attempted. Only the relaxations associated with the
strong anharmonicities of the Peierls-Nabarro structure
of the slip plane were found to give an appreciable
contribution, again typically of the order

(72)
at ordinary temperatures. This contribution also goes
rapidly to zero with decreasing temperature.
The phonon scattering processes can be divided into
two main types: scattering by the dislocation strain
field and scattering by dislocation vibrations. The first
process would cause a drag stress in the region

E/60X V/c<u<E/5X V/c

(73)

at ordinary temperatures T",(J, and for the second

mechanism at ordinary temperatures

u"-'E/lOX Vic,

(74)

when the dislocation is pictured as a smooth vibrating

string. The strain-field scattering contribution will go
to zero with temperature as E, while the second contribution will decrease with temperature more slowly than E,
as shown in Fig. 4. The temperature dependence given
in Fig. 4 should not be taken too serious because of
a possible change-over in dominant mechanism with
increasing temperature (III At).

PURE SLIP

2125

The phonon-scattering contributions have been

worked out on the assumption that phonon-phonon
scattering does not invalidate the picture of an isotropic
flux of phonons incident on the moving dislocation.
A precise criterion for when the phonon scattering
treatment ceases to be valid does not exist. Fortunately,
this uncertainty does not lead to much ambiguity as to
the right order of magnitude of the drag stress at
ordinary temperatures, since the high temperature
values of the formulas for the phonon scattering contributions are only of the same order of magnitude as
the dominant relaxation contributions.
If instead of long free dislocations, we have to do
with dislocations confined to crystallographic directions
by the Peierls' barrier and which contain freely moving
kinks, the kink mobility must be estimated. It is shown
that the scattering of thermal waves of a half-wavelength longer than the kink width by induced kink
vibrations causes a drag stress on a moving kink possibly
outweighing all other contributions up to ordinary
temperatures, and that for a kink of width D this drag
stress goes linearly with temperature down to (Jb/ D,
after which it goes more rapidly to zero. Thus, the
temperature dependence of internal friction may give
us information about the nature of the dislocation.
Although the temperature dependence to be expected
from the model of long free dislocation lines is not well
understood in detail, it is clear that only the kink model
may give an internal friction that decreases as slowly
with temperature as T down to a fraction of the
Debye temperature.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

It is a pleasure to acknowledge very helpful comments, in particular on the section on kink mobility,
by Dr. J. D. Eshelby of the Department of Physical
Metallurgy, The University of Birmingham. The author
is also most grateful to Professor W. R. Bitler, Professor
J. P. Hirth, and Professor G. M. Pound of this department for fruitful suggestions and criticism. This research
was supported in part by the Office of Naval Research.

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