Atomistic calculations of kink nucleation and migration in the core of partial dislocations demonstrated that symmetry-breaking structural reconstructions could strongly affect dislocation mobility. Core reconstruction gave rise to multiple kink species and, relative to kinks in an non-reconstructed dislocation, to an increase in the kink formation and migration energies. These effects led to an additional resistance, to dislocation motion, which scaled with the energy reconstruction. The results indicated that observed variations in dislocation mobility, in going from elemental to IV-IV, and to III-V and II-VI zincblende semiconductors, could be partly attributed to the weakening of core reconstruction throughout the series.

Dislocation Core Reconstruction and its Effect on Dislocation Mobility in Silicon J.F.Justo, V.V.Bulatov, S.Yip: Journal of Applied Physics, 1999, 86[8], 4249-57