The effect of annealing on the dislocation dissociation in plasticially deformed silicon

The dissociation of dislocations in deformed and annealed silicon samples is studied using the weak beam method of electron microscopy. It is shown that the annealing of samples may result in a significant decrease of the dissociation widths of dislocations with a predominant screw component. In samples deformed without annealing a major portion of such dislocations is split anomalously widely as compared to those with a predominant edge component, whereas after annealing the dissociation widths of dislocations of all orientations agree with the theoretical dependence. A possible relationship between the change in the dislocation dissociation after annealing and the behaviour of the EPR signal from dislocations is discussed.