Weak-beam electron microscopy was applied to the study of the dissociation of dislocations in type-IIa diamond. Dislocations with a Burgers vector of ½[110] on (111) glide planes were found to be dissociated into two Shockley partials, with separations of between 2.5 and 4.3nm. Extended nodes and dissociated dipoles were also observed. The stacking fault energy was determined, from the mean and distribution of the separations of the partials, to be 279mJ/m2. The behaviour of dislocations in diamond appeared to be similar to that of dislocations in Ge and Si.

Dissociation of Dislocations in Diamond. P. Pirouz, D.J.H.Cockayne, N.Sumida, P.Hirsch, A.R.Lang: Proceedings of the Royal Society A, 1983, 386[1791], 241-9