Effect of orientation on cyclic stress–strain curves and dislocation patterns of Ag and Cu single crystals

Cu and Ag single crystals with different orientations show great similarities in their cyclic deformation behavior, including cyclic stress–strain (CSS) curves and dislocation patterns. Based on a large amount of experimental results, it is found that single-slip, conjugate double-slip and [0 1 1] multiple-slip oriented Cu and Ag single crystals exhibit obvious plateau behavior in their CSS curves and the corresponding dislocation patterns are composed of typical two-phase structure including persistent slip bands (PSBs) and veins. However, the critical and coplanar double-slip oriented Cu and Ag single crystals do not exhibit clear plateau region in their CSS curves and labyrinth and cell structures are typical due to the different dislocation reactions. The relationship between the CSS curves and the saturation dislocation patterns was discussed and summarized.