Scanning tunnelling microscopy was used to study thermally-induced dislocation glide in monolayer Cu films on (00•1) Ru at room temperature. It was found that motion was governed by a Peierls barrier which depended upon the detailed structure of the dislocations and, in particular, upon whether the threading dislocations which terminated them were dissociated or not. Calculations which were based upon the Frenkel-Kontorova model reproduced the threading dislocation structure and provided estimates, of Peierls barriers and dislocation stiffnesses, which were consistent with experimental data.

Direct Observation of Misfit Dislocation Glide on Surfaces. J.De la Figuera, K.Pohl, O.Rodríguez de la Fuente, A.K.Schmid, N.C.Bartelt, C.B.Carter, R.Q.Hwang: Physical Review Letters, 2001, 86[17], 3819-22