Dislocation drag from phonon wind in an isotropic crystal at large velocities

The anharmonic interaction and scattering of phonons by a moving dislocation, the photon wind, imparts a drag force $v B(v, T, \rho)$ on the dislocation. In early studies the drag coefficient $B$ was computed and experimentally determined only for dislocation velocities $v$ much less than transverse sound speed, $c_t$. In this paper we derive analytic expressions for the velocity dependence of $B$ up to $c_t$ in terms of the third-order continuum elastic constants of an isotropic crystal, in the continuum Debye approximation, valid for dislocation velocities approaching the sound speed. In so doing we point out that the most general form of the third order elastic potential for such a crystal and the dislocation-phonon interaction requires two additional elastic constants involving asymmetric local rotational strains, which have been neglected previously. We compute the velocity dependence of the transverse phonon wind contribution to $B$ in the range 1%-90% $c_t$ for Al, Cu, Fe, and Nb in the isotropic Debye approximation. The drag coefficient for transverse phonons scattering from screw dislocations is finite as $v \rightarrow c_t$, whereas $B$ is divergent for transverse phonons scattering from edge dislocations in the same limit. This divergence indicates the breakdown of the Debye approximation and sensitivity of the drag coefficient at very high velocities to the microscopic crystalline lattice cutoff. We compare our results to experimental results wherever possible and identify ways to validate and further improve the theory of dislocation drag at high velocities with realistic phonon dispersion relations, inclusion of lattice cutoff effects, MD simulation data, and more accurate experimental measurements.

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