Occurrence and Mechanism of Rebinder Effects in CaF2

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Abstract
A study has been made of the influence of adsorbed species on the room-temperature mobility of near-surface dislocations introduced into freshly cleaved {111} CaF2 surfaces by a diamond indenter. It was found that, in general, adsorbed surface-active ions or molecules decrease dislocation mobility, i.e., increase microhardness. Studies of the relaxation behavior of near-surface dislocations in CaF2 exposed to solutions of DMF in DMSO revealed that these environments also can influence dislocation mobility in the absence of stresses imposed by a loaded indenter. Moreover, for any particular DMSO-DMF environment, a correlation exists between the extent of dislocation motion induced by a loaded indenter and the amount of relaxation which occurs after the indenter is removed. From these and other observations it is concluded that indenter-lubrication effects do not play a fundamental role in the occurrence of Rebinder phenomena in CaF2. The results of this work are consistent, however, with the view that Rebinder effects in ionic solids are associated with chemisorption-induced changes in the state of ionization of near-surface point defects and dislocations. Such changes introduce variations in their mutual interactions which are then manifested as environmentally induced changes in the mobility of near-surface dislocations, and hence in microhardness.

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