The effect of high current pulsing on persistent slip bands in fatigued copper single crystals

Copper single crystals fatigued along [ 123] loading axis were treated by high current pulsing after the formation of persistent slip bands (PSBs). The results show that the treatment by electropulsing made the PSBs vanish locally. This is due to the thermal compressive stress induced by electropulsing, which reduced the stress concentration at the interface between PSBs and matrix. The annihilation of edge dislocations reduced the width of PSBs and made the PSBs vanish locally. The main factor that made the dislocations move was the thermal compressive stress. The velocity of the dislocation motion is about (10 3–10 2) cm s −1.