CRYSTAL

DEFECTS Material Science

2021-2022 Fall
PART I
Week-5
INTRODUCTION
CLASSIFICATION
OD-1D DEFECTS
INTRODUCTION

• A real crystal does not exist in nature

• All crystals have some defects.
• The defects are not bad!, they are intentionally introduced to the material’s
structure to alter different properties.
• Adding alloying element to a metal (solid solution) is a way of introducing crystal
defect.
 DEFECTS CAN INTERACT WITH EACH
OTHER
• Impurities interact with dislocations or vacancies may interact with dislocations.
• It is important to note that defects inevitable since all manufacturing processes
are always far from thermal equilibrium and take place at finite temperatures.
(>0K)
A LOT OF PROPERTIES ARE
CONTROLLED OR AFFECTED BY
•DEFECTS
Electrical and thermal conductivity in metals (strongly reduced by point defects)
• Electronic conductivity in semi-conductors (controlled by substitutional defects)
• Diffusion (controlled by vacancies)
• Ionic conductivity (controlled by vacancies)
• Plastic deformation in crystalline materials (controlled by dislocations)
• Color (affected by defects)
• Mechanical strength (strongly depended on defects)
 POINT DEFECTS (0-D)
• Self-interstitial: Extra atoms (same atoms) occupies a place outside the normal
lattice position (interstitial sites).
• It may be the same type of atom as the others (self-interstitial) or an impurity (foreign-
interstitial) atom.
• The lattice region distorted around the interstitial atom.
• The formation of this defect is not highly possible (since high energy required) and it
exists in very small concentrations.
 POINT DEFECTS (0-D)
• Vacancies: A vacancy is produced when an atom is missing from its original
lattice site.
• Vacancies are extremely important since moving atom is a big deal. This is the reason
why we heat up iron and steel during sword making.
• Vacancy defect puts the neighboring atoms under tension.
• Due to the reduction in number of atoms in the crystalline solid, vacancy defect results
in the reduction of density. However, hardness of the solid may increase.
• It is not possible to create such a material that free of these defects.
EQUILIBRIUM NUMBER OF VACANCIES
EXAMPLE
IMPURITIES IN SOLIDS
• Impurities or foreign atoms
may be present in metals as
crystalline defects.
• The addition of impurity atoms
to a metal results in the
formation of solid solution.
• Substitutional solid
solution: One atom (parent
atom) is replaced by a
different atom
• Interstitial solid solution:
An extra atom is inserted into
the lattice structure at a
normally unoccupied position.
IMPURITIES IN SOLIDS
• If atomic radius of impurity is much
smaller than that of host atom,
interstitial solid solution forms.
• Even small amounts of solute can affect
the electrical and physical properties of the
solvent.
• Many metal alloys are solid solutions.
• Carbon forms an interstitial solid solution
when added to iron. (Rcarbon<<<Riron).
• Much of the steel used in construction,
for example, is a solid solution of iron
and carbon.
• Iron: solvent
• Carbon: solute
SUBSTITUTIONAL SOLID SOLUTION RULE
• For substitutional solid solutions, there are four rules that determine the
solubility;
• The size difference between the solute and solvent must be no greater than 15%.

• The crystal structures of the two species must be the same.

• The valence of the two species must be similar.
• The electronegativity of the two atomic species must be comparable.
 If all of four rules are satisfied, complete solubility occurs
 Otherwise, those atoms will only create a substitutional solid solution with
incomplete solubility.
EXAMPLE
 OTHER POINT DEFECTS
• These defects can be found in two different
forms in ionic solids:
• Schottky Defect: Both anion and cation is
missing from the lattice. It occurs in
compounds with ions of the same size.
• Overall electrical neutrality is maintained.
• Density reduces because of the vacancies.
• Frenkel Defect: Ion jumps from a normal
lattice point to interstitial sites leaving behind
a vacancy. It occurs in compounds with ions of
different size.
• Vacancy+interstitial combination
• Overall electrical neutrality is maintained.
(dielectric constant changes)
• Density is maintained since no atom leaves
the solid.
LINE DEFECTS-DISLOCATIONS
 LINE DEFECTS
(DISLOCATIONS)
• Line defects (one-dimensional defects) are
also called Dislocations.
• They occur in high densities and strongly
influence the mechanical properties of
material.
• Dislocations are dynamical defects since
they move under shear stress.
• The movement of dislocations cause plastic
deformation in metallic materials.
• Dislocations are classified as
• Edge dislocation (Orowan dislocation)
• Screw dislocation
 Many dislocations in crystalline
materials have both edge and screws
components; these are mixed
dislocations.
 EDGE DISLOCATION (TAYLOR-OROWAN
DISL.)
• An edge dislocation occurs due to the introduction or elimination of an extra row of
atoms.
• This line DC is called a positive edge dislocation.
• A negative edge dislocation would be obtained by inserting the extra plane of atoms
below plane ABCD.
 DISLOCATION MOTION
• Dislocation motion is analogous to moving a rug over a
floor by introducing a ruck on one edge.
• Pushing the ruck to the other edge moves the carpet by the
width of the ruck.
• For a crystal, the size of the "ruck" is the distance between
the atom planes, about 0.4 nm.
• This process may be repeated many times to achieve the
desired shear displacement between the rug and the floor
with less work than sliding the carpet in one go.
 SCREW
DISLOCATIO
N
• Cutting in a perfect crystal along a plane under
applying a shear stress can be seen in Figure (a).
• After this cutting, the screw dislocation is formed
parallel to the direction in which the crystal is being
displaced because of a shear stress (Figure (b)).
• The symbol ↻ sometimes used to represent screw
dislocation.
• The atoms represented by the blue circles have
not yet moved from their original position.
• The atoms represented by the red circles have
moved to their new position in the lattice and
have reestablished metallic bonds.
• The atoms represented by the green circles are in
the process of moving.
• Only a portion of the bonds are breaking at any
 BURGERS VECTOR AND BURGERS
CIRCUIT
• Dislocations are characterized by
the Burgers vector (b) (the
direction and magnitude)
• It is a displacement vector that
closes the loop (Burgers circuit)
when counting over a certain
number of lattice steps around the
defect.
• Burgers vector connects the failure
of the start and end points.
• If you have a perfect crystal, we
start/end at the same lattice point.
EDGE DISLOCATION
BURGERS VECTOR AND BURGERS
CIRCUIT

Edge dislocation: Burgers vector Screw dislocation: Burgers vector is

is perpendicular to the parallel to the dislocation line
 MIXED DISLOCATION
• Mixed dislocation: Dislocations exhibiting
both edge and screw characteristics are
known as mixed dislocations.
• These are the dislocations mostly
encountered in real crystals.
• It is very difficult to have pure edge
or pure screw dislocations.
• The Burgers vector for the mixed
dislocation is neither perpendicular
nor parallel to the dislocation line.
BURGERS VECTOR AND BURGERS
CIRCUIT
•The Burgers vector and dislocation line are
perpendicular for edge dislocations,
• parallel for screw dislocations
• and neither perpendicular nor parallel for mixed
dislocations