The viscous drag of dislocations was known to increase when a phase transition of the host material was approached. Previous discussions of this effect, however, have overlooked that, above the bulk transition point, the ordered phase could already nucleate along the dislocations. The viscous-drag component due to energy dissipation in such nuclei was shown to clearly dominate the previously known fluctuation-induced contributions at low dislocation velocities.

Dislocation Drag Close to a Phase Transition. A.L.Korzhenevskii, R.Bausch, R.Schmitz: Physical Review B, 2003, 67[10], 100103 (3pp)