Nature of etched slip planes in alpha brass

After deformation of alpha brass (70Cu--30Zn), polished and etched surfaces show markings that look and act much like slip lines and were concluded previously to be "traces of slip bands which can be etched because of distortion". This study was performed because the precise nature of the distortion was not known. Metallographic and transmission electron microscopic (TEM) techniques allowed the identification of the sources of preferential etching of the alpha brass. It was found from the relative abundances of defects seen by TEM that the likely sites of preferential etching of slip bands are stacking faults and deformation twins. 10 ref.--A.R.