Study of imperfections in iron whiskers

Iron whiskers grown by hydrogen reduction of ferrous chloride were studied by several X-ray and optical techniques, particularly by X-ray diffraction topography. 36 whiskers with [100], [110] and [111] axis directions, from 20 μm to 260 μm in thickness were investigated. They were of different degree of perfection with dislocations nonuniformly distributed. Three [111] whiskers showed a lattice twist around the axis. Burgers vectors of several frequent types of dislocations were found.