Intrinsic Disclinations as Dislocation Sources and Sinks in Surface Crystals

W. F. Harris and L. E. Scriven

Citation: Journal of Applied Physics 42, 3309 (1971); doi: 10.1063/1.1660731

View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.1660731
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 JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS VOLUME 42, NUMBER 9 AUGUST 1971

Intrinsic Disc1inations as Dislocation Sources and Sinks in Surface Crystals*

w. F. Harrist and L. E. Scriven
Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Minnesota. Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455
(Received 22 October 1970)

An intrinsic disclination (necessarily a wedge disclination) in a surface crystal can act as a

source of or sink for dislocations. In so acting the disclination suffers a displacement. An
equation is obtained which relates the displacement to the Burgers vectors of dislocations pro-
duced or annihilated. Examples involving disclinated square and hexagonal lattices are pre-
sented.

INTRODUCTION defects cannot have analogues in surface crystals

Many thin biological structures, including some
cell walls, membranes, and envelopes, exhibit
translational periodicity in two dimensions l -3; they
are today's prominent examples of surface crystals. 4
Dislocations can be identified in some of them. 5
Those dislocation sources in conventional crystals
which depend on the fact that dislocations are line
because dislocations in the latter are point defects.
Moreover, sources at crystal boundaries cannot
operate in closed-surface crystals where there are,
by definition, no boundaries. In this paper we
show that intrinsic (wedge) disclinations,6 which
are necessarily present in most closed surface
crystals,6,7 can act as sources of and sinks for dis-
locations in a plastically deforming surface crys-
tal. Intrinsic disclinations can be identified in

FIG. 1. An intrinsic disclination of

rotation 7T/2 acting as the source of
two dislocations. The first disloca-
tion leaves along glide line G j ; the
disclination is displaced from 1 in
(a) to the center of the triangle
formed by 1, 2, and 3 in (b)~ A sec-
ond dislocation, shown in (c), glides
along the same glide line, the dis-
clination is displaced to 2 in (d). G 2
in (a) is a second possible glide line
for the dislocations.

3309

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 3310 W.F. HARRIS AND L.E.
0'
~--
0'
2
FIG. 2. Planar representation of the displacement by
llr of an intrinsic disc1ination of rotation w. The discli-
nation acts as the source of a dislocation of Burgers vec-
tor hi of h2• For details see text.
models of membranes 8 and related structures 9;
their presence in cell walls is strongly indicated
by experimental evidence .10
QUALITATIVE DESCRIPTION OF MECHANISM
An intrinsic disclination of rotation 1T/2 is shown
centered at vertex 1 in Fig. 1(a). The row of units
from 1 to H may be regarded as an "extra half-
row' of a nascent dislocation. If this dislocation
leaves the disclination by glide along the glide line
GlI the disclination suffers a displacement from
vertex 1 to the center of the triangle formed by ver-
tices 1, 2, and 3 as shown in Fig. 1(b). If the
same row of units from 1 to H is now regarded as
an" extra half-row" of a second nascent dislocation
as in Fig. 1(c), then the departure of that disloca-
tion by glide along GI results in the further dis-
placement of the disclination to vertex 2 as shown
in Fig. l(d).
The emerging dislocations of Figs. l(a) and 1(c)
could leave along glide line Gz instead; the discli-
nation would still suffer the same displacement
from vertex 1 to vertex 2. In the reverse process
the disclination is a dislocation sink.
Glide need not necessarily occur. A dislocation
can be produced by pure climb towards H in Fig.
1(a) by means of successive removal of units in the
half-row 1-H.
QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS OF MODEL
Displacement of a disclination can be represented
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SCRIVEN
conveniently in a defect-free portion of perfect sur-
face crystal. Consider an intrinsic disclination of
rotation w at a point 0 in a crystal. Suppose it is
to act as the source of (or sink for) a dislocation
and, in the process, to suffer a displacement to a
new point 0'. A cut can be made from 0 through a
point P and thence either to the boundary of the
crystal or else all the way around the disclination,
at a suitable distance. The region of crystal con-
taining the disclination can then be flattened into a
portion of a perfect crystal, the point P falling
apart into two points PI and P z in the process.
The case when w >0 is shown in Fig. 2. OP 1 and
OP z are taken as straight lines. The flattened crys-
tal has a missing sector PlOP Z of angle w. The
displacement vector ~r bisects the angle P10P Z.
Displacement of the disclination through llr can be
represented by the removal of the convex region
bounded by P~O~O'OPl and the subsequent identifi-
cation of O'OP z with O'O~P~. Or, alternatively, it
can be represented by the removal of P~020'OPZ
and the identification of O'OP l with O'O~P~. These
two possibilities correspond to the emission of a
dislocation Dl or Dz with Burgers vector 61 or 6z,
respectively, or to the annihilation of a dislocation
with Burgers vector -61 or -6z. The glide direc-
tion corresponding to 61 or '6z is given by a vector
perpendicular to OP I or OP z, respectively, and di-
rected away from the missing sector and towards
the surface crystal.
For the case w < 0, the subscripts 1 and 2 in Fig. 2
are interchanged; the shaded sector is doubly occu-
pied. (It is perhaps easier to view the sector as
two overlapping portions of crystal.) To achieve
the displacement Sr, those portions removed in
the case when w > 0 have to be added in this case.
G1
+
I
I
I
I J
I bl
I
I
I
I- - - ~-- 1---
... -- 6;'
~'l /j //
b z'"
a
'i~ 'i 7/
",J
J
",-'
I
.... V/ 'i 0 /
//////
FIG. 3. An intrinsic disclination of rotation 11"/2 being dis-
placed by llr
ami actin$ as the source of a dislocation of
Burgers vector b l of b 2 with glide directions G I and G 2 ,
respectively. The shaded area is a missing sector.
 DISCLINATIONS AS DISLOCATION SOURCES 3311

... b l
I'
MK - - -- -- ~
I
I
I
// ~ 'lV
b2
, I /; ~ // /
~ // %~
I
"I
J I
,
",'
I /V/ // / FIG. 6. An intrinsic disclination of rotation -7T/3 acting
as the source of a dislocation of Burgers vector 0 1 or 62 •
The shaded area is doubly occupied.
F1G. 4. An intrinsic disclination of rotation -7T/2 being
displaced by C.r
and acting as the source of a dislocation and, therefore, that
of Burgers vector 61 or 62 • The shaded area is doubly
occupied. h1 = Ci- R(w) 1· Ilr. (2)
Similarly
The implication is clear that the possible Burgers
vectors of the dislocation produced or annihilated b2 =c.r. nnw) -71. (3)
are the negative of those in the case w> o.
In general then, displacement of a disclination by
The two Burgers vectors 61 and 62 can be obtained c.r is accompanied either by emission of a disloca-
very easily from geometry. Rotation through w tion whose Burgers vector 61 or 62 is given by Eq.
can be represented by the proper orthonormal ten- (2) or Eq. (3) or else by annihilation of a disloca-
sor l l tion with Burgers vector -6 1 or -62 • In either
case the duality of Burgers vectors is only appar-
R(w)=Icosw - Esinw, (1)
ent, for 61 and 6a in the flattened surface crystal
where 1= it +33 is the two -dimensional unit isotropic correspond to one and the same dislocation in the
tensor, E=ZJ -Ji is the two-dimensional unit alter- intact, disclinated surface crystal.
nating tensor, and i and] are two mutually perpen-
PARTICULAR EXAMPLES
dicular unit vectors in the midplane of the flattened
crystal. From Fig. 2 it follows that In Fig. 1, W= 7T/2. The corresponding flattened
crystal is shown in Fig. 3. The displacement of
R(w)· OP2=R(W)' O'P2 -h1 +c.r the disclination in the transition from (a) to (b) of
Fig. 1 is represented by c.r
in Fig. 3. In terms
of the lattice parameter a,
c.r=ta(}-t).
From Eqs. (2) and (3), b1 ==a3 and b2 ==ai. The re-
spective glide directions are shown by G1 and G 2 •
Allowing only those Burgers vectors which are
shortest symmetry operations and not allowing
more than one dislocation to arrive at or depart
from the disclination at anyone instant, one sees
that a disclination of rotation 7T/2 moves in steps
alternately from a vertex to a neighboring face cen-
ter and the face center to a neighboring vertex.
Each step is accompanied by production or removal
of a dislocation. The glide line always extends
from the face center to which or from which the
FIG. 5. An intrinsic disclination of rotation 7T/3 acting disclination is being displaced.
as the source of a dislocation of Burgers vector '6 1 or O2 •
The shaded area is a missing sector. The displacement For the smallest negative disclination in a square
vector C.r
is a symmetry operation of the perfect crystal. lattice, w == -7T /2. For the displacement of Fig. Sr:

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 3312 W. F. HARRIS AND L. E. SCRIVEN
4, Eqs. (2) and (3) give 6'1 = - at and 6'2 - iJ. With
the same restrictions on the dislocations as in the
previous paragraph, the same conclusions hold.
The smallest disclinations in a crystal with sixfold
axes of rotational symmetry have rotations 'IT/3 and
-'IT/3. Equations (2) and (3) for these two cases
give the Burgers vectors shown in Figs. 5 and 6
for the displacement of the disclination from one
vertex to a neighboring vertex. It follows that
these disclinations are likely to move in steps
from vertex to neighboring vertex, with each step
accompanied by the production or absorption of a
dislocation. In either event both possible glide
lines intersect at its midpoint the edge connecting
the two vertices in question.
CONCLUSION
Intrinsic (wedge) disclinations in surface crystals
are potential dislocation sources and sinks. In
acting as a source or sink a disclination suffers a
displacement. The Burgers vectors of the disloca-
tion produced or annihilated are related to the dis-
placement by Eqs. (2) and (3). In hexagonal lattices
the smallest disclinations are displaced in steps
from one point to a symmetrically equivalent point
whereas in square lattices the smallest disclina-
tions are displaced in steps that alternate between
two distinct classes of points.
*Work supported by the United States Government under
an AFOSR Grant. Paper is based on part of a thesis
submitted by W. F. Harris to the University of Minne-
sota in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the de-
gree of Ph.D.
tPresent address: Department of Chemical Engineering,
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South
Africa.
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(1969); see in particular the cover of Issue No. 3868.
4W. F. Harris, Ph.D. thesiS (University of Minnesota,
Minneapolis, 1970) (unpublished).
"A few excellent examples can be found in the micro-
graph on the cover referred to in Ref. 3. Another can
be seen in Fig. 28(A) of Ref. 2.
6W. F. Harris, in Fundamental Aspects of Dislocation
Theory, edited by J. A. Simmons, R. deWit, and R.
Bullough (National Bureau of. Standards, U.S. GPO,
Washington, D. C. , to be published).
7F. R. N. Nabarro, in Fundamental Aspects 0/ Disloca-
tion Theory, edited by J. A. Simmons, R. deWit, and
R. Bullough (National Bureau of Standards, U. S. GPO,
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8J. D. Robertson, in Handbook of Molecular Cytology,
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R. Baudoin, and D. Gllrome [J. Microscopie 7, 81 (1968)
Plate VIII] shows a hexagonal lattice completely
covering the organism. The surface containing the lat-
tice is a topological sphere; the lattice, therefore,
must contain intrinsic disclinations whose rotations
sum to 471 (Refs. 4 and 6). Unfortunately the micro-
graph is not quite clear enough to reveal the pOSitions
of the disclinations.
l1J. W. Gibbs and E. B. Wilson, Vector Analysis (Yale
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