A combined scanning tunnelling microscopy and atomistic simulation study was made of the emission of dissociated dislocation loops under the nano-indentation of a (001) face-centered cubic surface. The latter consisted of 2 stacking-fault ribbons bounded by Shockley partials and a stair-rod dislocation. These dissociated loops, which intersected the surface, were shown to originate from loops of interstitial character that were emitted along the <110> directions and were usually located tens of nm away from the indentation point. The simulations reproduced the nucleation and glide of these dislocation loops.

Dislocation Emission around Nano-Indentations on a (001) FCC Metal Surface Studied by Scanning Tunnelling Microscopy and Atomistic Simulations. O.Rodríguez de la Fuente, J.A.Zimmerman, M.A.González, J.de la Figuera, J.C.Hamilton, W.W.Pai, J.M.Rojo: Physical Review Letters, 2002, 88[3], 036101 (4pp)