High-voltage electron microscopy observation of stress-induced preferential absorption of interstitials

Abstract

The rate of climb of Frank loops of the interstitial type formed in silver during electron irradiation at 130[ddot]C in the presence of an external tensile stress has been studied using a combined in situ irradiation/deformation experiment in a high-voltage electron microscope. Such a stress has been found to have a profound effect on these Frank loops, and the climb rates of otherwise crystallographically equivalent edge dislocations become anisotropic in the presence of the external tensile stress. The results are compared with theoretical predictions made by a stress-induced preferential absorption (SIPA) mechanism of point defects.