Local decomposition induced by dislocation motions inside tetragonal Al2Cu compound: slip system-dependent dynamics

Dislocations in a crystal are usually classified into several independent slip systems. Motion of a partial dislocation in monometallic crystals may remove or create stacking fault characterized with a partial of a lattice translation vector. However, it is recently known that motion of partial dislocations in complex structure, such as that inside an intermetallic Al2Cu compound, lead to a local composition deviation from its stoichiometric ratio and the resultant structure collapse. Here we report such a local decomposition behaviors are strongly dependent on slip system of dislocations. Under applied external stress, we have studied dislocation motion behaviors in the three independent slip systems of [001](110), [100]() and [110]() within tetragonal Al2Cu crystal by using molecular dynamics method. We found dislocation motions in all these slip systems result in local decomposition but their physical details differ significantly.