Direct observation of individual dislocation interaction processes with grain boundaries

, via in situ nanoindentation experiments inside a transmission electron microscope. Our in situ observations show that both the high-angle and low-angle grain boundaries impede dislocation glide across them and that the impediment of dislocation glide does not simply originate from the geometric effects; it arises as a result of the local structural stabilization effects at grain boundary cores as well, especially for low-angle grain boundaries. The present findings indicate that simultaneous consideration of both the geometric effects and the stabilization effects is necessary to quantitatively understand the dislocation impediment processes at grain boundaries.