Disorientations in dislocation structures: Formation and spatial correlation

During plastic deformation, dislocation boundaries are formed and orientation differences across them arise. Two different causes lead to the formation of two kinds of deformation-induced boundaries: a statistical trapping of dislocations in incidental dislocation boundaries and a difference in the activation of slip systems on both sides of geometrically necessary boundaries. On the basis of these mechanisms, the occurrence of disorientations across both types of dislocation boundaries is modeled by dislocation dynamics. The resulting evolution of the disorientation angles with strain is in good agreement with experimental observations. The theoretically obtained distribution functions for the disorientation angles describe the experimental findings well and explain their scaling behavior. The model also predicts correlations between disorientations in neighboring boundaries, and evidence for their existence is presented.