Features of evolution of wedge-shaped twins in bismuth single crystals subjected to polysynthetic twinning

Features of evolution of wedge-shaped twins in bismuth single crystals with polysynthetic twins are examined. Polysynthetic twins are found to promote an increase in number, and a decrease in length, of indentation-induced wedge-shaped twins. The latter quantities depend on the density of twins in a polysynthetic twin. Based on the dislocation model, stress fields in the vicinity of wedge-shaped and polysynthetic twins are calculated at a mesoscopic level. __________ Translated from Prikladnaya Mekhanika i Tekhnicheskaya Fizika, Vol. 49, No. 3, pp. 208–216, May–June, 2008.