Transmission electron microscopic analysis of an annealed and quenched foil of ZrN revealed that ½<110> single dislocations dissociated into two 1/6<112> Shockley partial dislocations bounding an intrinsic stacking-fault. The ½<110> single dislocations had a super-jog character and were not co-planar with the dissociated Shockley partials. All dislocations and SFs were found to lie on {111} planes, indicating that a possible slip system was {111}<1¯10>. The dislocation reactions were the same as those observed in usual face-centered cubic metal alloys, although ZrN had an ordered NaCl-prototype structure. The stacking-fault energy of ZrN was calculated from the separation of Shockley partial dislocations and had an unusually low value of about 4.1mJ/m2. The dislocation dissociation and anomalously low stacking-fault energy could be explained by the large vacancy concentration.

Dislocation Reactions in ZrN. P.Li, J.M.Howe: Acta Materialia, 2002, 50[17], 4231-9