Planar Surface

Imperfection

Stacking Fault
Stacking Faults
Stacking faults can be formed during:

✓ crystal growth

✓ plastic deformation [as partial dislocations move as a result of dissociation of a

perfect dislocation]

✓ condensation of point defects (vacancies, interstitials) (i.e.) during high-rate plastic

deformation

✓ separation of two partial dislocations

Surface Imperfection
Stacking Fault

--A surface imperfection that

results from the stacking of one
atomic plane out of sequence on
another, while the lattice of either
side is perfect.
Surface Imperfection
Stacking Fault

EXAMPLE:

Stacking sequence in an ideal FCC

crystal—ABCABCABC—a stacking
fault may change this to—
ABCABABCA→ HCP stacking in FCC
Surface Imperfection
Stacking Fault

• The primary slip plane in

the face-centered cubic
lattice is the octahedral
plane {111}.
Stacking Fault
Stacking Fault

• The darkened circles represent

the close-packed (111) plane at
which the extra plane of the edge
dislocation ends, while the white
circles are the atoms in the next
following close-packed (111)
plane.
Stacking Fault

• Notice that in the latter plane a

zigzag row of atoms is
missing→Corresponds to the missing
plane of the edge dislocation
Stacking Fault
Stacking Fault

•Now consider the plane of

atoms (lying directly over the
zigzag row of white atoms)
immediately to the left
Stacking Fault

• The movement of the atoms of

this plane through the horizontal
distance b displaces the
dislocation one unit to the left.

• The vector b thus represents the

Burgers vector of the dislocation.
Stacking Fault

• Similar movements in succession of

the planes of atoms that find
themselves to the left of the
dislocation will cause the dislocation
to move across the entire crystal.
Stacking Fault

• The dislocation movement shears the

upper half of the crystal one unit b to
the right relative to the bottom half .
Stacking Fault

• Fig. 4.22---the movement of a zigzag

plane of atoms, such as aa, through the
horizontal distance b would involve a
very large lattice strain, because each
white atom at the slip plane would be
forced to climb over the dark atom
below it and to its right.
Stacking Fault

• The indicated plane of

atoms makes the move
indicated by the vectors
marked c in Fig. 4.23.
Stacking Fault
Stacking Fault

• This movement can occur with a much

smaller strain of the lattice.

• A second movement of the same type,

indicated by the vectors marked d,
brings the atoms to the same final
positions as the single displacement b of
Fig. 4.22.
Stacking Fault

• The atomic arrangement of Fig. 4.23 is

particularly significant because it shows
how a single unit dislocation can break
down into a pair of partial dislocations.
Surface Imperfection
Partial Dislocation & Stacking Fault
Stacking Fault

• The isolated single zigzag row of atoms

has an incomplete dislocation on each
side of it.
.
Surface Imperfection
Stacking Fault
•Full dislocation (extended dislocation)
breaks down into a pair of:

--- Shockley partial dislocations (Burgers

vector in the plane of the fault)

---Frank partial dislocation (Burgers

vector normal to stacking fault)
Surface Imperfection
Stacking Fault

•Partial dislocations
have Burgers vector →
Fraction of an
interatomic distance
FCC—ABCABC ; HCP--ABAB
Perfect Dislocations &
Shockley Partials
Shockley Partial vs Frank Partial
• A partial dislocation whose Burger vector lies on the plane of the
fault is called a Shockley partial dislocation.

• A partial dislocation whose Burgers vector is not parallel to the fault

is called a Frank partial dislocation.

• Energy of a Shockley partial is approximately 1/3rd of total

dislocation.

• Energy of a Frank partial is 2/3rd of total dislocation

• Shockley partials are glissile but Frank partials are sessile

Surface Imperfection
Stacking Fault

•b1 >b2 +b3

2 2 2

EXAMPLE:

½[110]→ 1/6[21-1]+1/6[121]
Surface Imperfection
Stacking Fault
Surface Imperfection
Partial Dislocation & Stacking Fault
Surface Imperfection
Partial Dislocation & Stacking Fault
Surface Imperfection
Partial Dislocation & Stacking Fault
Surface Imperfection
Partial Dislocation & Stacking Fault
Surface Imperfection
✓Partial dislocation and Stacking Faults

-- Burgers vector of the Shockley partials lie on

the slip plane that is a close packed plane
in FCC crystals
Stacking Faults
• In metals like copper or gold, the atoms in a part of one of the close-
packed layers may fall into the ‘wrong’ position relative to the atoms
of the layers above and below, so that a mistake in the stacking
sequence occurs (e.g. ABCBCABC …).

• Such an arrangement will be reasonably stable, but because some

work will have to be done to produce it, stacking faults are more
frequently found in deformed metals than annealed metals.
Stacking Faults

• Staking faults are planar faults that are created by

either removing an atomic layer or inserting an
extra layer, which are called an intrinsic fault, or
extrinsic fault, respectively.
Numakura Hiroshi, in Physical Metallurgy (Fifth Edition), 2014
Stacking Faults

• Intrinsic fault in fcc crystal: …ABC|BC…, where the bar

indicates the missing layer

• Extrinsic fault is …ABCBABC…, where B at the center is

the extra plane.
Numakura Hiroshi, in Physical Metallurgy (Fifth Edition), 2014
 Stacking Faults

• In both the cases, the close-packing is preserved,

so that no nearest-neighbor bonds are disturbed.

Numakura Hiroshi, in Physical Metallurgy (Fifth Edition), 2014

Stacking Faults

• Stacking faults can also be created by shear

displacements.
• In the structure …ABCABC…, if the right-half part is
shifted as a rigid body in such a way that A changes to
B, then the sequence becomes …ABCBCA…. It is the
same fault as the intrinsic fault.
Numakura Hiroshi, in Physical Metallurgy (Fifth Edition), 2014
Stacking Faults
• Stacking faults are observed in quenched and irradiated
metals.

• Supersaturated vacancies and self-interstitial atoms

often agglomerate on a close-packed plane, forming a
disc with a dislocation loop at its perimeter.

Numakura Hiroshi, in Physical Metallurgy (Fifth Edition), 2014

 Stacking Faults
• Figure 19(a) shows transmission
electron micrographs of intrinsic stacking faults formed
by condensation of vacancies in aluminum quenched
from a high temperature (Cotterill and Segall, 1963).

Numakura Hiroshi, in Physical Metallurgy (Fifth Edition), 2014

Stacking Faults

Figure 19. (a) Dislocation loops with a stacking fault in pure aluminum quenched from 923 K. (b) The same area as (a), showing
unfaulting of some of the loops by thermal stresses due to the electron beam.
After Cotterill and Segall (1963).

Numakura Hiroshi, in Physical Metallurgy (Fifth Edition), 2014

 Stacking Faults
• The fringes indicate the presence of a stacking fault on
the loop plane, which is {111}, with the dislocation
line segments parallel to 〈110〉 type directions.

Numakura Hiroshi, in Physical Metallurgy (Fifth Edition), 2014

 Stacking Faults
• The dislocation loop bounding the fault is called
a faulted loop or a Frank loop.

Numakura Hiroshi, in Physical Metallurgy (Fifth Edition), 2014

 Stacking Faults
• These vacancy discs often collapse with the facing atomic
planes being sheared to attain a regular …ABCABC…
sequence, only leaving a loop of a perfect dislocation, which
is called a perfect loop or a prismatic loop.10 Some of the
loops in Figure 19(a) are found to have been transformed to
perfect loops, no longer with the fringe contrast,
in Figure 19(b).

Numakura Hiroshi, in Physical Metallurgy (Fifth Edition), 2014

Stacking Faults
• These vacancy discs often collapse with the facing
atomic planes being sheared to attain a regular
…ABCABC… sequence, only leaving a loop of
a perfect dislocation, which is called a perfect loop
or a prismatic loop.

Numakura Hiroshi, in Physical Metallurgy (Fifth Edition), 2014

 Stacking Faults
• Some of the loops in Figure 19(a) are found to
have been transformed to perfect loops, no longer
with the fringe contrast, in Figure 19(b).

Numakura Hiroshi, in Physical Metallurgy (Fifth Edition), 2014

Stacking Fault Energy (SFE)
Effect of alloying element
High Stacking Fault Energy
• High SFE materials deform by glide of full
dislocations.
High Stacking Fault Energy
• Cross-slip happens under low stress for high SFE
materials like aluminum.

• This gives a metal extra ductility because with

cross-slip it needs only three other active slip
systems to undergo large strains.
High Stacking Fault Energy
• Some reorientation and texture development will
occur as the grains move during deformation.

• Extensive cross-slip due to large deformation also

causes some grain rotation. However, this re-
orientation of grains in high SFE materials is much less
prevalent than in low SFE materials.
Low Stacking Fault Energy
• Low SFE materials create partial dislocations.

• Screw dislocations which do exist cannot cross-

slip across stacking faults, even under high
stresses.
Low Stacking Fault Energy

• Five or more slip systems (combination of close

packed plane & directions) must be active for large
deformations to occur because of the absence of cross-
slip.

• Low SFE materials also twin when strained.

Low Stacking Fault Energy

• If deformation twinning is combined with regular shear

deformation, the grains eventually align towards a
more preferred orientation.

• When many different grains align a highly anisotropic

texture is created.
Splitting of Dislocations
 Thompson Tetrahedron

•Thompson tetrahedron is
formed by the {111} planes
with duly indexed planes
and edges
The Thompson Tetrahedron
 Thompson Tetrahedron

•The faces are {111} planes, they

show the positions of potential
stacking faults.
 Thompson Tetrahedron

•The edges are <110> directions,

they may be used to represent the
Burgers vectors of the perfect
dislocations and the preferred
direction for the line vectors.
The Thompson Tetrahedron

•The Burgers vector of the Shockley

partials that may bound a stacking
fault of the given {111} plane are
the vectors running from the center
of the triangular faces to the
corners.
 The Thompson Tetrahedron

•The Frank dislocations that also can

bound a stacking fault, run from the
center of the triangular faces to the
center of the tetrahedron.
In FCC crystal structure, the slip occurs on the {111} plane
(as close-packed and highest atomic density) and in the
<110> direction (highest atomic density in this direction).
The Burgers vector (ao/2)[110] dissociates
into partials creating stacking fault.

The dissociation reaction is as follows:

Equation of the plane OBC.

The equation of any plane can be written in the form

Points O, B and C lie on this plane OBC.

So they should satisfy the equation, .

Put coordinates of point O in the above equation

We get, d=0, from:
Similarly coordinates of B and C in equation gives :

→a=-b and a=c

→

becomes,
• →OBC is (1-11) plane (slip plane for FCC)

• The direction BC is shortest lattice vector

→Burger’s vector for the FCC:

Vector BC =coordinates of C – coordinates of B

✓ The coordinates of point D → D(x y z)

✓ D lies on plane OBC→ it satisfies the

equation of the plane:

x-y+z=0

✓ Distance (BD) = Distance (DC)

Solving this we get, x=z

Similarly,

Distance (DO) = Distance (DC)

When,

---x+y+z=0

---x=z

---y+z=1/2

→x=1/6, y=1/3, z=1/6

When B=1/2, 1/2, 0 and D= 1/6, 1/3, 1/6

Vector BD= Coordinates of D – Coordinates of B

Similarly,
 Splitting of Perfect Dislocations into
Partial Dislocations

• A perfect dislocation may dissociate into two

partial dislocations because this lowers the total
energy

• The Burgers vector b = a/2[110] may decompose

into the two Shockley partials a/6[121] and a/6[21–
1]

• A stacking fault between the two partial

dislocations must also be generated