Part V – May 1969 - Communications - Glide on High Indices Slip Planes in Tungsten

ALTHOUGH the (111) slip direction in pure bcc metals is well established, the information on operative slip planes is less unambiguously interpreted. So far, (110) {112), and (123) slip planes have been identified, but it is not certain whether glide on (112) and (123) really occurs or if it is composite slip on non-parallel (110) planes. The second of these possibilities is supported by the work of Chen and Maddin on niobium and molybdenum, and a subsequent analysis by these same workers of slip in bcc metals generally.3 The alternative possibility is exemplified by the work of Opinsky and smoluchowsky4 who concluded that slip in Fe-Si crystals can occur on any one of the systems {110}(111), {112}(111), and {123)(111), depending on which system the resolved shear stress is highest. Allen et alS5 also found that glide in ar iron could occur on any of these three systems, the operative system being determined principally by orientation. By an analysis of crystal rotation, slip lines, and X-ray asterism Harris6 concluded that niobium also deforms on these same systems, but if one of these glide planes does not coincide with the plane of maximum resolved shear stress, composite slip on nonparallel (110) planes may occur giving a macroscopic high indices slip plane. Earlier work on iron by Vogel and Brick reached the same conclusion.7 The analysis of slip in bcc metals is made more difficult by the fact that the slip lines may be quite wavy. In fact, the generality of wavy slip lines suggests that screw dislocations slip readily from one plane to another in the (111) zone ("pencil glide") although, as noted, it is not certain whether planes other than (110) really contribute to the slip. If planes of higher indices than {110} do operate, there is a possibility they may do so more readily at higher temperature Argon and Maloof9 observed {100}{211}(111) slip in tungsten single crystals plastically strained at low temperatures, but the results were interpreted in terms of an orientation-dependence rather than temperature-dependence. Therefore, at the present time corroborative evidence for the operation of higher indices slip planes at higher temperatures is lacking. The present results were obtained during the course of an investigation into the effect of cathode and anode surface crystallography on the prebreakdown currents of vacuum insulated devices. In the experiment of particular interest, the 1/8-in.-diam anode and the in.-diam cathode were tungsten crystals (total impurities -230 ppm) with (110) and (100) faces respectively. The faces were electrolytically planed and examined for initial perfection by plastic/carbon replicas and a study of Kikuchi lines in reflection electron diffraction patterns. They were aligned precisely parallel in an insulating holder incorporated into the electron microscope, the measured microscope vacuum being 2 x 10-5 torr, and the electrode spacing 0.01524 cm. The anode structure shown in Fig. 1 was obtained