From a theoretical analysis of the energy of dissociated dislocations moving in a periodic Peierls potential, it was shown that metastable dissociation configurations were expected, the range of which was asymmetrically distributed with respect to the equilibrium dissociation distance. In the course of the investigation, published data on the dissociation of dislocations in high-stress deformed Si were re-examined. It was concluded that the experimental results could be interpreted in a consistent way without the assumption of different mobilities for leading or trailing partials.

Dissociation of Dislocations and the Mobility of Partial Dislocations in Elemental Semiconductors. G.Vanderschaeve, D.Caillard: Physica Status Solidi A, 2005, 202[5], 939-43