Basal and Non-Basal Slip in Anthracene Single Crystals

The role of basal and non-basal slip in the deformation of anthracene single crystals is considered in the light of published evidence and further work to establish their relative importance is described. Compression and shear tests on suitably orientated crystals show that the critical resolved shear stress for non-basal slip is at least ten times greater than that for basal slip. It is concluded that at room temperature slip generally takes place on the (001) [010] and (001) [110] systems and that the non-basal (201) [010], (100) [010], (100) [001], (010) [100] and (010) [001] systems suggested previously are only activated to any other extent under deformation conditions which severely limit basal slip.