The mechanism of the beta-relaxation in high-purity bcc metals

摘要

The thermally activated and stress-assisted generation of kink pairs on {110} slip planes of a_0{111}/2 screw dislocations in bcc metals is identified as the origin of the beta-relaxation (Chambers-Schultz nomenclature). This identifaction accounts very well for the available data on high-purity transition metals (notably Mo and alpha-Fe). It explains why foreign interstitial atoms or defects generated by irradiation are necessary for the beta-relaxation to occur but do not significantly affect the relaxation process per se.