Molecular dynamics methods were used to simulate cross-slip by thermal activation at 30K, and the intersection of dislocations, in samples which contained 1.6 x 106 atoms, using the embedded atom method potential. The results showed that an extended screw dislocation could recombine, by thermal activation at 30K, into a constriction on the surface. This was because of stress imbalance. The constriction split again in the other slip plane. Removing the constriction along the extended dislocation resulted in cross-slip of the screw dislocation at low temperatures. After intersection between a moving right-hand screw dislocation, DC, and a perpendicular left-hand dislocation, BA (whose ends were fixed on the surface), an extended jog corresponding to a row of one-third vacancies formed in BA and a trail of vacancies formed behind DC. If the intersected dislocation was a right-hand screw dislocation, AB, the jog which formed in AB corresponded to a row of one-third interstitials, and the point defects behind DC were interstitials. After intersections of screw and edge dislocations, the jog which formed in the edge dislocation corresponded to a row of one-third vacancies. There were no point defects behind the screw dislocation.

Molecular Dynamics Simulation of Cross-Slip and the Intersection of Dislocations in Copper. M.Li, W.Y.Chu, K.W.Gao, L.J.Qiao: Journal of Physics - Condensed Matter, 2003, 15[20], 3391-9