On a Plasticity by Partial Dislocations in Silicon at Very High Stress

Perfect dislocations have been found controlling the plasticity of silicon at high stress. Such evidence has been obtained from a number of experiments and atomistic computations. This is also consistent with the larger Peierls stresses encountered by partial dislocations as compared to perfect dislocations at low temperatures. However at very high stress and in the same temperature range partial dislocation have been reported to occur in a few experiments as well as in some atomistic computations. The aim this paper is to discuss in what situations partial dislocations can be nucleated, what could be the nuclei responsible for their nucleation and the conditions where partial dislocations could control the plastic deformation in the place of perfect dislocations. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.