The line tension of dislocations in anisotropic media

Abstract

The line tension of a dislocation determines its stability against small bow-outs from an equilibrium position. It is composed of a local term which includes a logarithmic singularity (avoided by some cut-off procedure), and a term which represents the interaction with the rest of the configuration. Whereas the prelogarithmic factor of the local term is known for elastic anisotropy, the interaction term has so far been determined only for isotropic media. In the present paper this interaction is calculated for arbitrary anisotropy for bow-outs of various shapes in straight dislocation lines, thereby establishing the final resolution of the elastic line-tension problem.