Symposium SF10-Dislocation Behavior in Crystalline Materials—90 Years of Dislocation Theory and Application

In 1934, Taylor, Polanyi, and Orowan independently introduced the concept of edge dislocations. Nearly 90 years later, the significance of dislocations in materials science is indisputable. The nature, content, and distribution of dislocations in crystalline materials directly influence their performance across a wide range of applications.

For instance, dislocations play a crucial role in determining the mechanical properties of metal alloys, such as strength, ductility, and work hardening. These properties can vary with temperature and are affected by dislocation characteristics, slip systems, and dislocation interactions, potentially enabling mechanisms like grain boundary sliding and dynamic recrystallization. Moreover, dislocations can influence corrosion behavior by increasing susceptibility to localized corrosion or interfering with the formation of protective oxide films on metal surfaces.

In semiconductors and conductive materials, dislocations act as scattering centers for charge carriers, and optimizing their distribution can enhance electrical conductivity. Similarly, in magnetic materials, the content of dislocations affects domain structure and magnetic behavior, impacting properties such as coercivity and magnetic saturation. For thermal conductivity, a well-organized dislocation arrangement can minimize thermal scattering, which is essential for thermoelectric materials. In functional materials, such as piezoelectrics, the dislocation structure influences the response to external stimuli, thereby affecting the efficiency of actuators and sensors.

As the elemental compositions, microstructures, thermophysical properties, and manufacturing processes of materials have grown increasingly complex, understanding and controlling the effects of dislocations on the properties of metals, alloys, and ceramics is crucial. Thanks to significant advancements in characterization and simulation techniques, new models and multiscale integrated approaches are bridging various length and time scales, bringing us closer to achieving true predictive capability.

This symposium aims to establish the current state of the art and the challenges involved in characterizing, measuring, and predicting dislocation properties and behavior in crystalline materials under diverse conditions with two overarching goals: (1) Foster the integration of theoretical and experimental approaches to investigate dislocations and plasticity in general. (2) Encourage collaboration among scientists from different disciplines to share diverse aspects of their research on dislocations, sparking new ideas and collaborations.

We invite abstracts that present the development of novel or improved experimental and theoretical techniques for measuring dislocations, as well as their integration into advanced simulations of material behavior, with a focus on microstructures, thermomechanical properties, corrosion, and both magnetic and electric properties.

crystallographic structure ductility embrittlement machine learning predictive scanning electron microscopy (SEM) scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) simulation toughness transmission electron microscopy (TEM)