Plastic deformation by shuffle dislocations in silicon

The dislocation substructures of silicon deformed under hydrostatic pressure at room temperature in various deformation conditions have been characterized by transmission electron microscopy. This confirms the occurrence of deformation mechanisms by perfect dislocations for high-stress conditions. Dislocation line instabilities are found being consistent with a deep Peierls potential along 〈123〉 orientations. The nature of the core of those perfect dislocations is discussed in relation with these observations.