A theory for thermally assisted dislocation tunnelling through the Peierls barrier was developed. 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 value of the dislocation viscosity. Macroscopic plastic deformation parameters, such as the flow stress and the strain-rate sensitivity, were calculated and 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