Cross-slip and annihilation of screw dislocations in Cu: a molecular dynamics study

Cross-slip of screw dislocations and the annihilation of screw dislocation dipoles in Cu were simulated using constant-temperature constant-stress molecular dynamics. The cross-slip mechanism and annihilation process of flexible dislocations in a large dipole configuration was identified as a dynamic variant of the Friedel–Escaig mechanism. The cross-slip rate was found to exhibit exponential dependence on the temperature, from which the activation enthalpy for the cross-slip process was calculated by the Arrhenius relation.