Basal and non-basal dislocation slip in Mg-Y

The activation of non-basal slip systems is of high importance for the ductility in hcp Mg and its alloys. In particular, for Mg-Y alloys where a higher activation of pyramidal dislocation slip causes an increased ductility detailed characterization of the activated slip systems is essential to understand and describe plasticity in these alloys. In this study a detailed analysis of the activated dislocations and slip systems via post-mortem TEM and SEM-EBSD based slip band analysis in 3% deformed Mg-3 wt% Y is presented. The analysis reveals a substantial activity of pyramidal < c+a > dislocations with different Burgers vectors. The obtained dislocation densities and active slip systems are discussed with respect to atomistic simulations of nonbasal dislocations in hcp Mg. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.