It was recalled that it had been shown that the generalized-stacking-fault surface energy curve, which represented the energy dependence of the rigid shearing of a face-centred cubic crystal at a (111) plane along a [¯1¯12] slip direction, could provide invaluable information on the nature of the dislocation activity in nanocrystalline Ni, Al and Cu. Atomistic simulations had also revealed the complex localized strain environment within which nanocrystalline dislocation nucleation occurred. Using the density functional theory method, an investigation was made here of the effect of an imposed isotropic and simple shear strain field upon the shape of a generalized-stacking-fault surface energy curve for Al, Cu and Ni, and, in particular, how this affected the ratio of the stable to unstable stacking fault surface energy. The results were explained in terms of second and third order elasticity theories.

General-Stacking-Fault Energies in Highly Strained Metallic Environments - ab initio Calculations. C.Brandl, P.M.Derlet, H.Van Swygenhoven: Physical Review B, 2007, 76[5], 054124 (8pp)