Microscopic Imperfections

Microscopic imperfections are generally classified as either point, line, or interfacial imperfections.

1. Point imperfections have atomic dimensions.
2. Line imperfections or dislocations are generally many atoms in length.
3. Interfacial imperfections are larger than line defects and occur over a twodimensional area.

Point Imperfections

Point imperfections in crystals can be divided into three main defect categories. They are illustrated in Figure 7.

1. Vacancy defects result from a missing atom in a lattice position. The vacancy type of defect can result from imperfect packing during the crystallization process, or it may be due to increased thermal vibrations of the atoms brought about by elevated temperature.
2. Substitutional defects result from an impurity present at a lattice position.
3. Interstitial defects result from an impurity located at an interstitial site or one of the lattice atoms being in an interstitial position instead of being at its lattice position. Interstitial refers to locations between atoms in a lattice structure.
   Interstitial impurities called network modifiers act as point defects in amorphous solids. The presence of point defects can enhance or lessen the value of a material for engineering construction depending upon the intended use.

Line Imperfections

Line imperfections are called dislocations and occur in crystalline materials only. Dislocations can be an edge type, screw type, or mixed type, depending on how they distort the lattice, as shown in Figure 8. It is important to note that dislocations cannot end inside a crystal. They must end at a crystal edge or other dislocation, or they must close back on themselves.

Edge dislocations consist of an extra row or plane of atoms in the crystal structure. The imperfection may extend in a straight line all the way through the crystal or it may follow an irregular path. It may also be short, extending only a small distance into the crystal causing a slip of one atomic distance along the glide plane (direction the edge imperfection is moving).

The slip occurs when the crystal is subjected to a stress, and the dislocation moves through the crystal until it reaches the edge or is arrested by another dislocation, as shown in Figure 9. Position 1 shows a normal crystal structure. Position 2 shows a force applied from the left side and a counterforce applied from the right side. Positions 3 to 5 show how the structure is slipping. Position 6 shows the final deformed crystal structure. The slip of one active plane is ordinarily on the order of 1000 atomic distances and, to produce yielding, slip on many planes is required.

Screw dislocations can be produced by a tearing of the crystal parallel to the slip direction. If a screw dislocation is followed all the way around a complete circuit, it would show a slip pattern similar to that of a screw thread. The pattern may be either left or right handed. This requires that some of the atomic bonds are re-formed continuously so that the crystal has almost the same form after yielding that it had before.

The orientation of dislocations may vary from pure edge to pure screw. At some intermediate point, they may possess both edge and screw characteristics. The importance of dislocations is based on the ease at which they can move through crystals.

Interfacial Imperfections

Interfacial imperfections exist at an angle between any two faces of a crystal or crystal form. These imperfections are found at free surfaces, domain boundaries, grain boundaries, or interphase boundaries. Free surfaces are interfaces between gases and solids. Domain boundaries refer to interfaces where electronic structures are different on either side causing each side to act differently although the same atomic arrangement exists on both sides. Grain boundaries exist between crystals of similar lattice structure that possess different spacial orientations. Polycrystalline materials are made up of many grains which are separated by distances typically of several atomic diameters. Finally, interphase boundaries exist between the regions where materials exist in different phases (i.e., BCC next to FCC structures).