The energies of the steps which were formed by (a/2)<110> dislocations on the 3 low-index surfaces of these metals were calculated by using many-body potentials. A so-called tension step was found to have an energy which was larger than a so-called compression step of the same atomic configuration, and the energy difference was shown to be equal to the surface energy per atomic area. In general, the energy difference between 2 glide steps having the same atomic configuration was simply the surface energy which was associated with the difference in length scale of the surfaces of the 2 samples which contained the steps. It was deduced that an intrinsic energy could be defined which was characteristic of the atomic configuration and which was independent of the mode of creation of the step. The concept of intrinsic energy was considered for growth steps and for other steps which formed via diffusion.

Energies of the Atomic Steps Formed on Low-Index Surfaces of FCC Metals S.Brochard, P.Beauchamp, J.Grilhé: Philosophical Magazine Letters, 1998, 77[3], 125-34