TY - CONF A1 - Maaß, Robert A1 - Rizzardi, Quentin A1 - Mc Elfresh, Cameron A1 - Sparks, Gregory T1 - Transitions from scale-free to scale-dependent fluctuations in plasticity N2 - Plastic deformation in crystals is mediated by the motion of line defects known as dislocations. For decades, dislocation activity has been treated as a homogeneous, smooth continuous process that relies on well-average quantities. However, it is now recognized that plasticity can be determined by long-range correlated and intermittent collective dislocation activity, known as avalanches. These abrupt plastic fluctuations often exhibit pure power-law scaling or truncated power-law scaling, which indicates at least some degree of scale-free dislocation behavior. Intriguingly, such statistical signatures can persist across scales exceeding those of the material’s microstructure, raising the question of what relationship there may be between structure and long-range correlated dislocation activity that underlie power-law scaling. In this talk, we address this question by highlighting examples in which a transition from scale-free to scale-dependent plastic deformation is observed either due to changing external testing conditions (stress-state or temperature) or by tuning the microstructure. In particular, we will focus on the details of the temperature-driven change, that demonstrates how scale-free intermittent flow in body-centered cubic Nb is progressively quenched out with decreasing temperature. The plastic response of Nb is shown to be bimodal across the studied temperature regime, with conventional thermally-activated smooth plastic flow coexisting with sporadic bursts controlled by athermal screw dislocation activity, thereby violating the classical notion of temperature-dependent screw dislocation motion at low temperatures. An abrupt increase of the athermal avalanche component is identified at the critical temperature of the material. We combine the experimental observations with 3D dislocation dynamics simulations, identify a possible origin to athermal screw activity, and discuss the co-existence scale-free and scale-dependent plasticity. T2 - Cairo Symposium on The Physics of Metal Plasticity CY - Cairo, Egypt DA - 05.09.2023 KW - Plastic deformation KW - Dislocations KW - Avalanches PY - 2023 AN - OPUS4-60648 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -