On the Efficiency of Dislocation Climb in Gold

The climb rate of the three‐dimensional dislocation network in gold is investigated experimentally under the following non‐equilibrium vacancy conditions: 1) supersaturation at elevated temperatures during rapid down‐quenching; 2) supersaturation at lower temperatures following a rapid down‐quench from an elevated temperature; 3) subsaturation during uppulsing and holding at an elevated temperature. It is found that the network climbs with a quite high efficiency under all the above conditions; that is, at a rate which is within a factor of one‐tenth to one of the maximum possible rate calculated on the assumption that vacancy equilibrium is maintained evergwhere along the dislocation cores and that the climb rate is therefore vacancy diffusion limited.