It was noted that the diffusion of solutes along dislocation lines could be accelerated due to the variable interaction energy between a solute atom and a dislocation. This arose from the variation of the edge component of the Burgers vector along the dislocation line. For parameter values that were typical of binary Cu alloys, in which mechanical alloying led to the formation of extended solid solutions or amorphous phases, the acceleration of diffusion could exceed a factor of 10. The Schwarz mechanism of mechanical alloying could therefore operate for powders with particle sizes of up to hundreds of nm.

Pipe Diffusion along Curved Dislocations: an Application to Mechanical Alloying Y.Estrin, E.Rabkin: Scripta Materialia, 1998, 39[12], 1731-6