Dislocation structures and mechanical behaviour of Ge single crystals deformed by compression

Stress–strain curves of germanium interrupted by dip tests reveal that the internal stresses ascend parallel to the applied stress in a strain-rate dependent way. To understand this peculiar behaviour, the dislocation microstructure has been characterized. Transmission electron microscopy images show that regions of high dislocation activity along the primary slip system are separated by dislocation-free zones. X-ray microdiffraction reveals that the dislocation density is fluctuating on a 100 μm scale. X-ray reciprocal-space mapping, together with scanning microdiffraction, shows that misoriented mosaic blocks are forming owing to the boundary conditions in the compression test. These preliminary results reveal deformation heterogeneity both at macroscopic and mesoscopic scales.