A theory was developed for thermally-assisted dislocation tunnelling through the Peierls barrier. The theory took account of the effect of dissipation upon the under-barrier motion, and described the temperature- and stress-dependences of kink-pair formation for any values of dislocation viscosity. Macroscopic plastic deformation parameters, such as the flow stress and the strain-rate sensitivity, were calculated and were compared with experimental data on low-temperature plastic deformation.

Dissipative Dislocation Tunnelling at Finite Temperatures B.V.Petukhov, H.Koizumi, T.Suzuki: Philosophical Magazine A, 1998, 77[4], 1041-52