Dislocation creep is a deformation mechanism in crystalline materials. Dislocation creep involves the movement of dislocations through the crystal lattice of the material, in contrast to diffusion creep, in which diffusion (of vacancies) is the dominant creep mechanism. It causes plastic deformation of the individual crystals, and thus the material itself.
Dislocation creep is highly sensitive to the differential stress on the material. At low temperatures, it is the dominant deformation mechanism in most crystalline materials.[1] Some of the mechanisms described below are speculative, and either cannot be or have not been verified by experimental microstructural observation.[2]