Large-scale atomistic modelling has demonstrated that the dynamic interactions of dislocations in thin films had a number of remarkable features. A particular example was the interaction between a screw dislocation and a stacking fault tetrahedron in Cu, which could be directly compared with in situ observations of quenched or irradiated face-centered cubic metals. If the specimen was thin, the dislocation velocity was slow, and the temperature was high enough, a segment of the original stacking fault tetrahedron could be transported towards the surface via a double cross-slip mechanism and fast glide of an edge dislocation segment formed during the interaction. The mechanisms observed in the simulations provided an explanation for the results of in situ straining experiments and the differences between bulk and thin film experiments.

On the Features of Dislocation-Obstacle Interaction in Thin Films - Large-Scale Atomistic Simulation. Y.N.Osetsky, Y.Matsukawa, R.E.Stoller, S.J.Zinkle: Philosophical Magazine Letters, 2006, 86[8], 511-9