Dislocation motion in the early stages of high-temperature low-stress creep in a single-crystal superalloy with a small lattice misfit

Dislocation configurations at different creep stages (1100 °C and 137 MPa) in a superalloy TMS-75(+Ru) were studied in transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and the movement path of these creep-produced dislocations could be fully illustrated. Due to the small value of γ/γ′ lattice misfit, these dislocations cannot glide in the horizontal γ matrix channels by cross slip, but they mainly move by climbing around the γ′ cuboids. In the primary stage, the dislocations first move by slip in the γ-matrix channels. When they reach the γ′ cuboids, they move by climbing along the γ′ cuboid surfaces. In the secondary creep stage, dislocation reorientation in the (001) interfacial planes happens slowly, away from the deposition orientation of 〈110〉 to the misfit orientation of 〈100〉. The velocity of the reorientation is lower and a perfect γ/γ′ interfacial dislocation network cannot be formed quickly. This factor results in a large creep rate of the alloy during the secondary creep stage. The path for dislocation motion during the early creep stages consists of the following sequences: (i) climbing along the γ′ cuboid surface, (ii) deposition onto the (001) γ/γ′ interfacial plane, and (iii) reorientation from the 〈110〉 direction to the 〈100〉 direction.