Low-Temperature Deformation of Copper Single Crystals

Single crystals of copper were deformed at 4.2°K and 77.3°K. At 4.2°K, after a large strain produced by normal slip, jerky flow (discontinuous slip) occurs. From the study of reactor irradiated crystals, it was deduced that a packet of 30 slip lines, each containing 104 dislocations, was released to form each jerk of the discontinuous flow. For samples of certain orientation the region of discontinuous flow was followed by a region of deformation twinning. The fact that deformation twinning was taking place was verified by x-ray methods. The twinning elements were determined to be the (111) plane and the [112] direction. At 77.3°K, discontinuous slip was not observed. In a limited range of orientations, twinning has been observed at 77.3°K. The effects of reactor irradiations on discontinuous slip and on twinning were also studied and it was determined that the occurrence of twinning was unaffected by the irradiations.