On the determination of stacking-fault energy from dislocation nodes observed by TEM

Abstract

A fundamental understanding of the mechanical and physical behaviour of metals requires a knowledge of the stacking-fault energy (SFE). This aspect is important because the possibility of cross-slip and thus plastic deformation is a function of the SFE of the material. Impurities may segregate to the faults and change the SFE, which may affect the mechanical behaviour. For low SFE’s materials, the SFE can be determined rather accurately from transmission electron microscopy evaluation of the radius of curvature of dislocation nodes formed by the attractive interaction of dislocations (Fig. 1).This work is directed towards applying the T.E.M. technique to determine the SFE of a 310S stable austenitic stainless steel. The specimens were observed in a JEOL 4000 microscope operated at an accelerating voltage of 200 kV, and equipped with a double tilt stage. Conventional two beam bright field images were used to determine the Burgers vector and line direction of the partial dislocations.