arXiv subjects

Irene J. Beyerlein

Publications and source records attributed to Irene J. Beyerlein.

12 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Reversible Modulation of Thermal Conductivity in GaN through Strain-Field Screening around Dislocations

Crystalline defects are generally regarded as static phonon scatterers that irreversibly suppress thermal transport. Here we show that elastic strain can reversibly modify dislocation-associated strain fields and strongly alter heat conduction. Using in situ strain-dependent time-domain thermoreflectance measurements, we observe a reversible enhancement of thermal conductivity in GaN by 23% under only 0.21% uniaxial strain. High-resolution X-ray diffraction reveals progressive narrowing of the symmetric (0002) reflection, indicating a reduction in the distribution of lattice rotations and heterogeneous strain. High-resolution electron backscatter diffraction directly shows that the spatial autocorrelations of multiple strain components decay over progressively shorter distances with applied strain, providing real-space evidence for enhanced screening of long-range strain fields. Raman spectroscopy further shows a non-monotonic evolution of the $E_{2}^{\mathrm{high}}$ phonon linewidth near the onset of the thermal-conductivity increase. Together, these results support a picture in which elastic strain reversibly reconfigures pinned dislocation lines and shortens the spatial range of their heterogeneous strain fields, thereby reducing phonon scattering. Our work establishes defect-associated strain correlations as a tunable degree of freedom for controlling thermal transport in crystalline solids.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2026

Atomistic and data-driven insights into the local slip resistances in random refractory multi-principal element alloys

Refractory multi-principal element alloys (RMPEAs) have attracted growing interest for their exceptional high-temperature strength, yet their complex compositions hinder a mechanistic understanding of plastic deformation. Here, we perform atomistic simulations to determine local slip resistances (LSRs) of edge and screw dislocations on primary BCC slip planes in 12 equal-molar RMPEAs. Machine learning is employed to uncover relationships between LSR and underlying material properties, enabling systematic assessment of compositional effects on dislocation behavior. Based on these insights, we develop a thermally activated, dislocation-based model to predict macroscopic yield stress. We find that increasing the fraction of hexagonal close-packed elements above 50% significantly reduces unstable stacking fault energy, ideal shear strength, and screw LSR across all slip planes. Higher elastic anisotropy further lowers these quantities, while lattice distortion modifies relative slip resistances between dislocation characters and slip systems. By combining an autoencoder with a random forest model, we identify elastic constants and lattice distortion as the dominant factors controlling LSR. The resulting framework accurately predicts tensile yield stress in BCC RMPEAs and provides guidance for alloy design.

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arXiv2022

Multi-scale Investigation of Chemical Short-Range Order and Dislocation Glide in the MoNbTi and TaNbTi Refractory Multi-Principal Element Alloys

Refractory multi-principal element alloys (RMPEAs) are promising materials for high-temperature structural applications. Here, we investigate the role of chemical short-range ordering (CSRO) on dislocation glide in two model RMPEAs - TaNbTi and MoNbTi - using a multi-scale modeling approach. A highly accurate machine learning interatomic potential was developed for the Mo-Ta-Nb-Ti system and used to demonstrate that MoNbTi exhibits a much greater degree of SRO than TaNbTi and the local composition has a direct effect on the unstable stacking fault energies (USFE). From mesoscale phase-field dislocation dynamics simulations, we find that increasing SRO leads to higher mean USFEs, thereby increasing the stress required for dislocation glide. The gliding dislocations experience significant hardening due to pinning and depinning caused by random compositional fluctuations, with higher SRO decreasing the degree of USFE dispersion and hence, amount of hardening. Finally, we show how the morphology of an expanding dislocation loop is affected by the applied stress, with higher SRO requiring higher applied stresses to achieve smooth screw dislocation glide.

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arXiv2020

Dislocation-induced Y segregation at basal-prismatic interfaces in Mg

Solute segregation at twin boundaries in Mg has been widely investigated, yet this phenomenon has not been studied at the equally important basal-prismatic interfaces. To fill this critical gap, this work investigates the segregation behavior of Y at basal-prismatic interfaces with various structures using atomistic simulations. The calculated interfacial energies show that short coherent interfaces and long semi-coherent interfaces containing disconnections and dislocations are more energetically stable than disordered interfaces, which is supported by our experimental observations. The segregation energy of Y at these lowest energy basal-prismatic interfaces shows a clear correlation with the atomic hydrostatic stress, highlighting the importance of local compressive stresses for segregation. In addition, sites around dislocations at the semi-coherent basal-prismatic interfaces demonstrate lower segregation energy, indicating that local defects such as interfacial dislocations can further enhance the segregation. In its entirety, this study indicates that the segregation of solutes can be affected by a number of different aspects of the local structure at complex interfaces in Mg alloys.

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arXiv2020

Embracing the chaos: Alloying adds stochasticity to twin embryo growth

High-throughput atomistic simulations reveal the unique effect of solute atoms on twin variant selection in Mg-Al alloys. Twin embryos first undergo a stochastic incubation stage when embryos choose which twin variant to adopt, and then a deterministic growth stage when embryos expand without changing the selected twin variant. An increase in Al composition promotes the stochastic incubation behavior on the atomic level due to nucleation and pinning of interfacial disconnections. At compositions above a critical value, disconnection pinning results in multiple twin variant selection.

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arXiv2020

Disconnection-mediated twin embryo growth in Mg

While deformation twinning in hexagonal close-packed metals has been widely studied due to its substantial impact on mechanical properties, an understanding of the detailed atomic processes associated with twin embryo growth is still lacking. Conducting molecular dynamics simulations on Mg, we show that the propagation of twinning disconnections emitted by basal-prismatic interfaces controls the twin boundary motion and is the rate-limiting mechanism during the initial growth of the twin embryo. The time needed for disconnection propagation is related to the distance between the twin tips, with widely spaced twin tips requiring more time for a unit twin boundary migration event to be completed. Thus, a phenomenological model, which unifies the two processes of disconnection and twin tip propagation, is proposed here to provide a quantitative analysis of twin embryo growth. The model fits the simulation data well, with two key parameters (twin tip velocity and twinning disconnection velocity) being extracted. In addition, a linear relationship between the ratio of twinning disconnection velocity to twin tip velocity and the applied shear stress is observed. Using an example of twin growth in a nanoscale single crystal from the recent literature, we find that our molecular dynamics simulations and analytical model are in good agreement with experimental data.

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arXiv2019

A 3D phase field dislocation dynamics model for body-centered cubic crystals

In this work, we present a 3D Phase Field Dislocation Dynamics (PFDD) model for body-centered cubic (BCC) metals. The model formulation is extended to account for the dependence of the Peierls barrier on the line-character of the dislocation. Simulations of the expansion of a dislocation loop belonging to the $\left\{110\right\} \left<111\right>$ slip system are presented with direct comparison to Molecular Statics (MS) simulations. The extended PFDD model is able to capture the salient features of dislocation loop expansion predicted by MS simulations. The model is also applied to simulate the motion of a straight screw dislocation through kink-pair motion.

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arXiv2019

Alloy Design for Mechanical Properties: Conquering the Length Scales

Predicting the structural response of advanced multiphase alloys and understanding the underlying microscopic mechanisms that are responsible for it are two critically important roles modeling plays in alloy development. An alloys demonstration of superior properties, such as high strength, creep resistance, high ductility, and fracture toughness, is not sufficient to secure its use in widespread application. Still, a good model is needed, to take measurable alloy properties, such as microstructure and chemical composition, and forecast how the alloy will perform in specified mechanical deformation conditions, including temperature, time, and rate. In this bulletin, we highlight recent achievements by multiscale modeling in elucidating the coupled effects of alloying, microstructure, and the dynamics of mechanisms on the mechanical properties of polycrystalline alloys. Much of the understanding gained by these efforts relied on integration of computational tools that varied over many length and time scales, from first principles density functional theory, atomistic simulation methods, dislocation and defect theory, micromechanics, phase field modeling, single crystal plasticity, and polycrystalline plasticity.

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arXiv2016

Deformation in amorphous-crystalline nanolaminates -- an effective-temperature theory and interaction between defects

Experiments and atomic-scale simulations suggest that the transmission of plasticity carriers in deforming amorphous-crystalline nanolaminates is mediated by the biphase interface between the amorphous and crystalline layers. In this paper, we present a micromechanics model for these biphase nanolaminates that describes defect interactions through the amorphous-crystalline interface (ACI). The model is based on an effective-temperature framework to achieve a unified description of the slow, configurational atomic rearrangements in both phases when driven out of equilibrium. We show how the second law of thermodynamics constrains the density of defects and the rate of configurational rearrangements, and apply this framework to dislocations in crystalline solids and shear transformation zones (STZs) in amorphous materials. The effective-temperature formulation enables us to interpret the observed movement of dislocations to the ACI and the production of STZs at the interface as a "diffusion" of configurational disorder across the material. We demonstrate favorable agreement with experimental findings reported in (Kim et al., Adv. Funct. Mater., 2011), and demonstrate how the ACI acts as a sink of dislocations and a source of STZs.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2016

First-principles study of $\langle c+a \rangle$ dislocations in Mg

We use first-principles density functional theory to study the generalized stacking fault energy surfaces for pyramidal-I and pyramidal-II slip systems in Mg. We demonstrate that the additional relaxation of atomic motions normal to the slip direction allows for the appropriate local minimum in the generalized stacking fault energy (GSFE) curve to be found. The fault energy calculations suggest that formation of pyramidal-I dislocations would be slightly more energetically favorable than that for pyramidal-II dislocations. The calculated pyramidal-II GSFE curves also indicate that the full pyramidal II dislocations would dissociate into the Stohr and Poirier (SP) configuration, consisting of two $\frac{1}{2}\langle c+a \rangle$ partials, $\frac{1}{6}[11{\bar2}3] + \frac{1}{6}[11{\bar2}3]$ , but the pyramidal-I GSFE curves, while also possessing a local minimum, would not dissociate into the same SP configuration. We report observation of these partials here emanating from a $\{10{\bar1}2 \}$ twin boundary. Using MD simulations with MEAM potential for Mg, we find that the full pyramidal-II $\langle c+a \rangle $ dislocation splits into two equal value partials $\frac{1}{6}[11{\bar2}3] + \frac{1}{6}[11{\bar2}3]$ separated by ~22.6 $Å$. We reveal that the full pyramidal-I $\langle c+a \rangle$ dislocation dissociates also into two equal value partials but onto alternating $(30{\bar3}4)$ and $(30{\bar3}2)$ planes with $\frac{1}{6} [20{\bar2}3]$ and $\frac{1}{6} [02{\bar2}3]$ Burgers vectors separated by a 30.4 $Å$ wide stacking fault. When a stress is applied, edge and mixed dislocations of the extended pyramidal-II dislocation can move on their glide plane; however, pyramidal-I dislocations of similar character cannot.

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arXiv2013

Plastic response by dislocation glide in solid helium under dc strain rate loading

We develop a model for the gliding of dislocations and plasticity in solid He-4. This model takes into account the Peierls barrier, multiplication and interaction of dislocations, as well as classical thermally and mechanically activated processes leading to dislocation glide. We specifically examine the dc stress-strain curve and how it is affected by temperature, strain rate, and dislocation density. As a function of temperature and shear strain, we observe plastic deformation and discuss how this may be related to the experimental observation of elastic anomalies in solid hcp He-4 that have been discussed in connection with the possibility of supersolidity or giant plasticity. Our theory gives several predictions for the dc stress strain curves, for example, the yield point and the change in the work-hardening rate and plastic dissipation peak, that can be compared directly to constant strain rate experiments and thus provide bounds on model parameters.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2013

Dislocation induced anomalous softening of solid helium

The classical motion of gliding dislocation lines in slip planes of crystalline solid helium leads to plastic deformation even at temperatures far below the Debye temperature and can affect elastic properties. In this work we argue that the gliding of dislocations and plasticity may be the origin of many observed elastic anomalies in solid He-4, which have been argued to be connected to supersolidity. We present a dislocation motion model that describes the stress-strain $τ$-$ε$ curves and work hardening rate $dτ/dε$ of a shear experiment performed at constant strain rate $\dotε$ in solid helium. The calculated $dτ/dε$ exhibits strong softening with increasing temperature due to the motion of dislocations, which mimics anomalous softening of the elastic shear modulus $μ$. In the same temperature region the motion of dislocations causes dissipation with a prominent peak.

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