Dislocation dynamics in pulse-loaded NaCl crystals

The mean path l of freshly introduced dislocations in NaCl crystals under the effect of triangular loading pulses τ(t) is shown to depend only on the pulse amplitude τ_m and be insensitive to the rate of stress growth. The replacement of triangular pulses with trapezoidal ones with a constant-load plateau (τ=const) extension of up to 60 min only insignificantly changes the l(τ_m) dependence. The data obtained are interpreted on the basis of the concept of quasi-static relaxation in a nonequilibrium system of dislocations subject to a combined effect of time-dependent applied stresses τ(t), coordinate-dependent internal stresses τ_i(x), and “dry friction” τ_p due to the pinning of dislocations by point defects. In such a model, the l(τ_m) dependence should saturate at τ_m<2τ_p; this is in fact observed in the range of 0.2τ_m<τ_m<0.3τ_y (here, τ_y is the yield stress), which gives an estimate for the pinning stress τ_p≈0.1τ_y. Based on the model suggested, a series of experimentally confirmed predictions were obtained, e.g., a recipe of “switching-off” of anomalies. Thus, a preliminary treatment of the samples by a series of stress pulses or holding in a magnetic field, which transforms the system of fresh dislocations into a more equilibrium state, sharply decreases the density of mobile dislocations quasi-statically responding to a pulsed load. It is shown that the discussed anomalies of dislocation mobility should be observed only in sufficiently pure crystals, where , and should be absent in contaminated crystals, where τ_p ～ τ_y.