Characterization of the glide planes of the [001] screw dislocations in olivine using electron tomography

A San Carlos olivine polycrystal has been deformed under uppermost mantle conditions, by compression at 900 A degrees C, at a strain rate of 1.1 x 10(-5) s(-1), under a confining pressure of 300 MPa, using the Paterson press. Transmission electron tomography of dislocations has been performed by scanning transmission electron microscopy, by conventional transmission electron microscopy using the weak-beam dark-field technique, associated with precession or not, in order to determine the glide planes of [001] screw dislocations. This recent technique is the most suitable one since most [001] dislocations exhibit straight screw segments due to the high lattice friction on this character at low temperature. We find that [001] dislocations glide in (100), (010) and {110} as already reported, but also more unexpectedly in {120} and {130}. We show that at 900 A degrees C, [001] {110} glide is dominant in polycrystals. We have, however, noted and characterized numerous cross-slip events in the specimen.