Universal strain-temperature dependence of dislocation structures at the nanoscale

The universal topology of experimental strain-temperature maps of dislocation structures of face-centered cubic metals allows the ordering of dislocation structure forming processes in these metals, which is not consistent with the stacking fault energy or the melting temperature. Using dimensional analysis, it is shown that the metals can be ordered by the activation energy for cross slip. The experimental maps are scaled by the cross-slip activation energy to form a universal strain-temperature map. The implications for dislocation rearrangement mechanisms are discussed.