The stability of Lomer-Cottrell jogs in nanopillars

Single arm spiral sources, or truncated Frank Read sources, have been used frequently to interpret the size dependent plasticity in micropillars. The basis for these sources is strong pinning points which have been proposed to exist based on immobile Lomer-Cottrell jogs. Here, we show, using molecular dynamics of face-centered cubic nanopillars, that Lomer-Cottrell jogs are not as immobile as initially thought and that they do not provide strong pinning points for single arm sources. (C) 2010 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.