“…It is assumed that the impurity concentration determines z, , even in our purest crystals, whereas the work hardening beyond zo depends only on dislocation interactions. Etch pit observations on different alkali halide crystals (LiF [18], NaC1 [19], KC1 [20]) yield a z -1; relation between flow stress z and the screw dislocation density in the The secondary dislocations activated in the latent system have to overcome the primary dislocation forest. This requires a stress z1= A v' ef (2) (.4 = gpb, g forest interaction parameter, ef forest dislocation density).…”