Defects in solids: Point defects and line defects

Imperfections or defects: Any deviation from the perfect atomic arrangement in a crystal is said to
contain imperfections or defects. In fact, using the term “defect” is sort of a misnomer since these
features are commonly intentionally used to manipulate the mechanical properties of a material.
Adding alloying elements to a metal is one way of introducing a crystal defect. Crystal
imperfections have strong influence upon many properties of crystals, such as strength, electrical
conductivity and hysteresis loss of ferromagnets. Thus some important properties of crystals are
controlled by as much as by imperfections and by the nature of the host crystals.
 The conductivity of some semiconductors is due entirely to trace amount of chemical
impurities.
 Color, luminescence of many crystals arise from impurities and imperfections
 Atomic diffusion may be accelerated enormously by impurities or imperfections
 Mechanical and plastic properties are usually controlled by imperfections

Imperfections in crystalline solids are normally classified according to their dimension as follows
1. Point imperfections (Zero dimensional defects)
2. Line imperfections (one dimensional defects)
3. Plane or surface imperfections (Two dimensional defects)
4. Volume imperfections (three dimensional defects)

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 Crystal defect

Point defects Line defects Surface defects Volume defects

Vacancy Edge dislocation Grain boundaries Inclusions
Schottkey Screw Dislocation Titl boundaries Voids
Self interstitial Twin boundaries
Frenkel Stacking faults
Substitutional
Colour centres
Polarons
Excitons

Point Defects: Point defects are where an atom is missing or is in an irregular place in the lattice
structure. Point defects include self interstitial atoms, interstitial impurity atoms, substitutional
atoms and vacancies.
A self interstitial atom is an extra atom that has crowded
its way into an interstitial void in the crystal structure.
Self interstitial atoms occur only in low concentrations in
metals because they distort and highly stress the tightly
packed lattice structure. A substitutional impurity atom
is an atom of a different type than the bulk atoms, which
has replaced one of the bulk atoms in the lattice.
Substitutional impurity atoms are usually close in size
(within approximately 15%) to the bulk atom. An
example of substitutional impurity atoms is the zinc
atoms in brass. In brass, zinc atoms with a radius of 0.133
nm have replaced some of the copper atoms, which have
a radius of 0.128 nm. Interstitial impurity atoms are
much smaller than the atoms in the bulk matrix.
Interstitial impurity atoms fit into the open space between the bulk atoms of the lattice structure. An
example of interstitial impurity atoms is the carbon atoms that are added to iron to make steel.

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Carbon atoms, with a radius of 0.071 nm, fit nicely in the open spaces between the larger (0.124
nm) iron atoms. Vacancies are empty spaces where an atom should be, but is missing. They are
common, especially at high temperatures when atoms are frequently and randomly change their
positions leaving behind empty lattice sites. In most cases diffusion (mass transport by atomic
motion) can only occur because of vacancies. Schottkey imperfection is a type of vacancy in
which an atom being free from regular site, migrates through successive steps and eventually settles
at the crystal surface. In a ionic crystal, however a vacancy on either a cation or anion site must be
electrically balanced by some means. This may be achieved if there are an equal number of cation
and anion vacancies, or if for every ionic crystal vacancy a similar charged interstitial appears.

The combination of anion cation vacancies (in pairs) is called Schottkey imperfections. The
combination of a vacancy and interstitial is called a Frankel imperfection.

Line Imperfections:
In linear defects groups of atoms are in irregular positions. Linear defects are commonly called
dislocations. Any deviation from perfectly periodic arrangement of atoms along a line is called the
line imperfection. In this case, the distortion is centered only along a line and therefore the
imperfection can be considered as the boundary between two regions of a surface which are perfect
themselves but are out of register with each other. The line imperfection acting as boundary
between the slipped and un-slipped region, lies in the slip plane and is called a dislocation.
Dislocations are generated and move when a stress is applied. The strength and ductility of metals
are controlled by dislocations.
To extreme types of dislocations are distinguish as
1. Edge dislocations and
2. Screw dislocations.

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Edge Dislocations:
The inter-atomic bonds are significantly distorted only in the immediate vicinity of the dislocation
line. As shown in the set of images, the dislocation moves similarly small amount at a time. The
dislocation in the top half of the crystal is slipping one plane at a time as it moves to the right from
its position in image (a) to its position in image (b) and finally image (c). In the process of slipping
one plane at a time the dislocation propagates across the crystal. The movement of the dislocation
across the plane eventually causes the top half of the crystal to move with respect to the bottom half.
However, only a small fraction of the bonds are broken at any given time. Movement in this manner
requires a much smaller force than breaking all the bonds across the middle plane simultaneously.

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Screw Dislocations:
The screw dislocation is slightly more difficult to visualize. The motion of a screw dislocation is
also a result of shear stress, but the defect line movement is perpendicular to direction of the stress
and the atom displacement, rather than parallel. To visualize a screw dislocation, imagine a block of
metal with a shear stress applied across one end so that the metal begins to rip. This is shown in the
upper right image.

The lower right image shows the plane of atoms just above the rip. The atoms represented by the
blue circles have not yet moved from their original position. The atoms represented by the red
circles have moved to their new position in the lattice and have reestablished metallic bonds. The
atoms represented by the green circles are in the process of moving. It can be seen that only a
portion of the bonds are broke at any given time. As was the case with the edge dislocation,
movement in this manner requires a much smaller force than breaking all the bonds across the
middle plane simultaneously.

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If the shear force is increased, the atoms will continue to slip to the right. A row of the green atoms
will find there way back into a proper spot in the lattice (and become red) and a row of the blue
atoms will slip out of position (and become green). In this way, the screw dislocation will move
upward in the image, which is perpendicular to direction of the stress.

Planar defects
In plane defects, the crystalline irregularity extends in two dimensions. The most common type of
plane defects in any crystal is its surface itself. The atoms at the surface of a crystal are not
surrounded by as many numbers of atoms as those inside the crystal. The energy inside the is
therefore less than at the surface. For the same crystal structure, the co-ordination number of an
atom inside the crystal is different from that of an atom at the surface. Thus, the surface of a crystal
is a defect on its own.
Planar defects include grain boundaries, stacking faults and external surfaces.

Stacking Faults and Twin Boundaries

A disruption of the long-range stacking sequence can produce two other common types of crystal
defects: 1) a stacking fault and 2) a twin region. A change in the stacking sequence over a few
atomic spacings produces a stacking fault whereas a changeover much atomic spacing produces a
twin region. A stacking fault is a one or two layer interruption in the stacking sequence of atom
planes. Stacking faults occur in a number of crystal structures, but it is easiest to see how they occur
in close packed structures. For example, it is know from a previous discussion that face centered
cubic (fcc) structures differ from hexagonal close packed (hcp) structures only in their stacking
order. For hcp and fcc structures, the first two layers arrange themselves identically, and are said to
have an AB arrangement. If the third layer is placed so that its atoms are directly above those of the
first (A) layer, the stacking will be ABA. This is the hcp structure, and it continues ABABABAB.
However it is possible for the third layer atoms to arrange themselves so that they are in line with
the first layer to produce an ABC arrangement which is that of the fcc structure. So, if the hcp
structure is going along as ABABAB and suddenly switches to ABABABCABAB, there is a
stacking fault present.

Alternately, in the fcc arrangement the pattern is ABCABCABC. A stacking fault in an fcc structure
would appear as one of the C planes missing. In other words the pattern would become

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ABCABCAB_ABCABC. If a stacking fault does not corrects itself immediately but continues over
some number of atomic spacings, it will produce a second stacking fault that is the twin of the first
one. For example if the stacking pattern is ABABABAB but switches to ABCABCABC for a
period of time before switching back to ABABABAB, a pair of twin stacking faults is produced.
The red region in the stacking sequence that goes ABCABCACBACBABCABC is the twin plane
and the twin boundaries are the A planes on each end of the highlighted region.

Grain Boundaries in Polycrystals

Another type of planer defect is the grain boundary. Up to this point, the discussion has focused on
defects of single crystals. However, solids generally consist of a number of crystallites or grains.
Grains can range in size from nanometers to millimeters across and their orientations are usually
rotated with respect to neighboring grains. Where one grain stops and another begins is know as a
grain boundary. Grain boundaries limit the lengths and motions of dislocations. Therefore, having
smaller grains (more grain boundary surface area) strengthens a material. The size of the grains can
be controlled by the cooling rate when the material cast or heat treated. Generally, rapid cooling
produces smaller grains whereas slow cooling result in larger grains. For more information, refer to
the discussion on solidification.

In the region of grain boundary, the atoms are not arranged in proper order and are always under
pull by the adjacent grains. As a consequence, the grain boundary atom cannot join either of the

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crystals and therefore, takes up a compromising position. As the grain boundary atoms are
obviously not surrounded by as many atoms as those inside the crystal, the energy of the grain
boundaries is the more than that of the grains. Because the opposing forces experienced by the grain
boundary atoms is restricted to short distances only, the thickness of the grain boundary surface is
only a few atomic diameters. If the misorientation between the two grains is more than 10-15, the
grain boundary is called a high-angle grain boundary. If the angle between the orientations of the
two grains is less than 10, the boundary is known as a low-grain boundary.

Electronic imperfections
This defect arises due to error in charge or energy distribution in solids and plays an important part
in the electrical and magnetic properties of materials.

Excitation states of crystals

Excitation states are quantized. These states can be regarded as imperfections as these cause
deviations from perfect crystal symmetry. Some examples are
(i) Phonons and magnons which are quantized lattice vibrations and spin waves respectively.
(ii) Conduction electrons and holes which are excited thermally from filled bands impurity
levels.
(iii) Excitons which are quantized electron hole pairs.
(iv) Quantized plasma waves.

Transient Imperfections
These imperfections are induced into the crystal due to external sources e.g.,
(a) Photons which are ordinary quantized electromagnetic waves,
(b) High energy charged particles like electrons, protons, mesons, ions, etc.
(c) High energy uncharged particles such as neutrons and neutral atoms.

Plastic Deformations
Elastic properties are reversible. If a crystal is elastically deformed under the influence of an applied
stress, it will return to its original form when the stress is removed. However, if the applied stress is
sufficiently large, a certain degree of deformation remains even after the removal of the stress. The

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crystal is said to be have been plastically deformed. This is referred to as plasticity of the crystal.
Plastic deformations are, therefore, irreversible deformations.
Plastic deformation takes place in a crystal due to the sliding of one part of the crystal with respect
to the other.

Volume or Bulk Defects

Bulk defects occur on a much bigger scale than the
rest of the crystal defects discussed in this section.
However, for the sake of completeness and since
they do affect the movement of dislocations, a few
of the more common bulk defects will be
mentioned. Voids are regions where there are a
large number of atoms missing from the lattice. The
image to the right is a void in a piece of metal. The
image was acquired using a Scanning Electron
Microscope (SEM). Voids can occur for a number
of reasons. When voids occur due to air bubbles becoming trapped when a material solidifies, it is

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commonly called porosity. When a void occurs due to the shrinkage of a material as it solidifies, it
is called cavitation.
Another type of bulk defect occurs when impurity atoms cluster together to form small regions of a
different phase. The term ‘phase’ refers to that region of space occupied by a physically
homogeneous material. These regions are often called precipitates or inclusions.

Effect of point defect:

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