Numerical simulation of dislocation motion in three-dimensional icosahedral quasicrystals

In a large number of experiments it has been shown that plastic deformation of quasicrystals can occur by a dislocation mechanism. By molecular dynamics simulations close to zero temperature we have investigated the application of shear stress to a three-dimensional model quasicrystal consisting of Lennard-Jones particles and containing an edge dislocation of the Peierls-Nabarro type. Various visualization methods have been used to trace the dislocation line. To determine suitable Burgers vectors we have calculated the gamma surface, that is the misfit energy obtained by a rigid shift of two probe halves along a glide plane. Glide motion of the dislocation on different glide planes was observed. In its wake a plane of phasonic defects was detected.