Measurement of dislocation density by residual electrical resistivity

The paper introduces the electrical resistivity as a very suitable method to measure dislocation densities. This is especially true for high dislocation densities up to N approximate to 10(18) m(-2) but also for low ones in pure metals where the method yields about the same accuracy as Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), provided low temperature baths are available to suppress the phonon contribution. In order to apply the method in impure or alloyed metals, corrections must be done which consider the different scattering anisotropies of other crystal defects which inevitably coexist with dislocations. Since these corrections can be performed very exactly (at least in the noble metals), the loss in measuring resolution in impure and alloyed systems is moderate compared to metals with high purity.