Why can't a dislocation terminate in the bulk?

Question

We are told that they can only terminate on surfaces, grain boundaries or other dislocations but we are not told why they can't terminate inside the crystal.

This post imported from StackExchange Physics at 2014-04-13 14:50 (UCT), posted by SE-user user17338

Comments

Citation? It's a lot easier to answer when we know the exact phrasing of the statement in question. But I suspect you'll see the reason (if I understand what you're getting at) if you arrange a bunch of marbles, simulating a 2-D crystalline structure with a dislocation.

This post imported from StackExchange Physics at 2014-04-13 14:50 (UCT), posted by SE-user Carl Witthoft

Answer 1

Because in the bulk, the energy between two dislocations is proportional to the distance between them. This means the dislocations are confined in the bulk. So they can not appear in side the crystal.

This post imported from StackExchange Physics at 2014-04-13 14:50 (UCT), posted by SE-user Everett You