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The quantitative analysis of dislocation-type defects in irradiated materials is critical to materials characterization in the nuclear energy industry. The conventional approach of an instrument scientist manually identifying any dislocation defects is both time-consuming and subjective, thereby potentially introducing inconsistencies in the quantification. This work approaches dislocation-type defect identification and segmentation using a standard open-source computer vision model, YOLO11, that leverages transfer learning to create a highly effective dislocation defect quantification tool while using only a minimal number of annotated micrographs for training. This model demonstrates the ability to segment both dislocation lines and loops concurrently in micrographs with high pixel noise levels and on two alloys not represented in the training set. Inference of dislocation defects using transmission electron microscopy on three different irradiated alloys relevant to the nuclear energy industry are examined in this work with widely varying pixel noise levels and with completely unrelated composition and dislocation formations for practical post irradiation examination analysis. Code and models are available at https://github.com/idaholab/PANDA .

Design and development of advanced electrocatalysts with high performance and low Pt consumption are crucial for reducing the kinetic energy barrier of the cathode oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and improving the efficiency of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC). In this study, we demonstrate a Pb-modulated PtCo system for efficient ORR, in which the inclusion of Pb in ternary alloys induces dislocation defects due to the significant difference in atomic radius. Dislocation-PtCoPb was confirmed to exhibit significantly higher ORR activity and stability in acidic ORR. In practical PEMFC applications, it outperforms the corresponding commercial Pt/C with a mass activity of 0.58 A ⋅ mg Pt − 1 , making it a promising alternative to state-of-the-art Pt-based catalysts. The combination of experimental results and density functional theory (DFT) calculations offers valuable atomic-level insights into the dislocation structures. Pb with a larger atomic radius is located in the lattice stretching region below the dislocation slip plane, forming a structure similar to a Cottrell atmosphere, which reduces the dislocation energy and puts the system in a lower energy state. The Cottrell atmosphere pins the dislocation structure and stabilizes the ternary alloy. By adjusting the amount of added Pb, a moderate level of dislocation density induces a tuned strain effect, thereby enhancing the electrocatalytic mechanism by optimizing the electronic structure of the alloy surface and the adsorption and desorption of oxygen species. This work provides valuable insights into the design and development of lattice dislocation defect structures to trigger strain effects for improving ORR performance.

Diffusion of atoms in a crystalline lattice is a thermally activated process that can be strongly accelerated by defects such as grain boundaries or dislocations. When carried by dislocations, this elemental mechanism is known as \"pipe diffusion.\" Pipe diffusion has been used to explain abnormal diffusion, Cottrell atmospheres, and dislocation-precipitate interactions during creep, although this rests more on conjecture than on direct demonstration. The motion of dislocations between silicon nanoprecipitates in an aluminum thin film was recently observed and controlled via in situ transmission electron microscopy. We observed the pipe diffusion phenomenon and measured the diffusivity along a single dislocation line. It is found that dislocations accelerate the diffusion of impurities by almost three orders of magnitude as compared with bulk diffusion.

Dislocations are common defects in solids, yet all crystals begin as dislocation-free nuclei. The mechanisms by which dislocations form during early growth are poorly understood. When nanocrystalline materials grow by oriented attachment at crystallographically specific surfaces and there is a small misorientation at the interface, dislocations result. Spiral growth at two or more closely spaced screw dislocations provides a mechanism for generating complex polytypic and polymorphic structures. These results are of fundamental importance to understanding crystal growth.

The dominant mechanism for creating large irreversible strain in atomic crystals is the motion of dislocations, a class of line defects in the crystalline lattice. Here we show that the motion of dislocations can also be observed in strained colloidal crystals, allowing detailed investigation of their topology and propagation. We describe a laser diffraction microscopy setup used to study the growth and structure of misfit dislocations in colloidal crystalline films. Complementary microscopic information at the single-particle level is obtained with a laser scanning confocal microscope. The combination of these two techniques enables us to study dislocations over a range of length scales, allowing us to determine important parameters of misfit dislocations such as critical film thickness, dislocation density, Burgers vector, and lattice resistance to dislocation motion. We identify the observed dislocations as Shockley partials that bound stacking faults of vanishing energy. Remarkably, we find that even on the scale of a few lattice vectors, the dislocation behavior is well described by the continuum approach commonly used to describe dislocations in atomic crystals.

Numerical simulations of the transient temperature field and dislocation density distribution for a recently published silicon crystal heating experiment were carried out. Low- and high-frequency modelling approaches for heat induction were introduced and shown to yield similar results. The calculated temperature field was in very good agreement with the experiment. To better explain the experimentally observed dislocation distribution, the Alexander–Haasen model was extended with a critical stress threshold below which no dislocation multiplication occurs. The results are compared with the experiment, and some remaining shortcomings in the model are discussed.

Deformation of metals and alloys by dislocations gliding between well-separated slip planes is a well-understood process, but most crystal structures do not possess such simple geometric arrangements. Examples are the Laves phases, the most common class of intermetallic compounds and exist with ordered cubic, hexagonal, and rhombohedral structures. These compounds are usually brittle at low temperatures, and transformation from one structure to another is slow. On the basis of geometric and energetic considerations, a dislocation-based mechanism consisting of two shears in different directions on adjacent atomic planes has been used to explain both deformation and phase transformations in this class of materials. We report direct observations made by Z-contrast atomic resolution microscopy of stacking faults and dislocation cores in the Laves phase Cr₂Hf. These results show that this complex dislocation scheme does indeed operate in this material. Knowledge gained of the dislocation core structure will enable improved understanding of deformation mechanisms and phase transformation kinetics in this and other complex structures.

We study the interaction of a singularly-perturbed multiwell energy (with an anisotropic nonlocal regularizing term of H^sup 1/2^ type) and a pinning condition. This functional arises in a phase field model for dislocations which was recently proposed by Koslowski, Cuitiño and Ortiz, but it is also of broader mathematical interest. In the context of the dislocation model we identify the Γ-limit of the energy in all scaling regimes for the number N^sub ^ of obstacles. The most interesting regime is N^sub ^[asymptotically =]|ln |/, where is a nondimensional length scale related to the size of the crystal lattice. In this case the limiting model is of line tension type. One important feature of our model is that the set of energy wells is periodic, and hence not compact. Thus a key ingredient in the proof is a compactness estimate (up to a single translation) for finite energy sequences, which generalizes earlier results from Alberti, Bouchitté and Seppecher for the two-well problem with a H^sup 1/2^ regularization.[PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

We apply the HotQC method of Kulkarni et al. (J Mech Phys Solids 56:1417–1449, 2008 ) to the study of quasistatic void growth in copper single crystals at finite temperature under triaxial expansion. The void is strained to 30% deformation at initial temperatures and nominal strain rates ranging from 150 to 600 K and from 2.5 × 10 5 to 2.5 × 10 11 s −1 , respectively. The interatomic potential used in the calculations is Johnson’s Embedded-Atom Method potential Johnson (Phys Rev B 37:3924–3931, 1988 ). The computed pressure versus volumetric strain is in close agreement with that obtained using molecular dynamics, which suggests that inertia effects are not dominant for the void size and conditions considered. Upon the attainment of a critical or cavitation strain of the order of 20%, dislocations are abruptly and profusely emitted from the void and the rate of growth of the void increases precipitously. Prior to cavitation, the crystal cools down due to the thermoelastic effect. Following cavitation dislocation emission causes rapid local heating in the vicinity of the void, which in turn sets up a temperature gradient and results in the conduction of heat away from the void. The cavitation pressure is found to be relatively temperature-insensitive at low temperatures and decreases markedly beyond a transition temperature of the order of 250 K.

The movement of dislocations in a crystal is the key mechanism for plastic deformation in all materials. Studies of dislocations have focused on three-dimensional materials, and there is little experimental evidence regarding the dynamics of dislocations and their impact at the atomic level on the lattice structure of graphene. We studied the dynamics of dislocation pairs in graphene, recorded with single-atom sensitivity. We examined stepwise dislocation movement along the zig-zag lattice direction mediated either by a single bond rotation or through the loss of two carbon atoms. The strain fields were determined, showing how dislocations deform graphene by elongation and compression of C-C bonds, shear, and lattice rotations.