We present a combined study by scanning tunneling microscopy and atomistic simulations of the emission of dissociated dislocation loops by nanoindentation on a (001) fcc surface. The latter consist of two stacking-fault ribbons bounded by Shockley partials and a stair-rod dislocation. These dissociated loops, which intersect the surface, are shown to originate from loops of interstitial character emitted along the $〈110〉$ directions and are usually located at hundreds of angstroms away from the indentation point. Simulations reproduce the nucleation and glide of these dislocation loops.

• Received 13 July 2001

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.88.036101