Highly excited states and the nucleation of defects in stress concentrator zones

The formation of lattice defects in a stress concentrator zone is treated as a local, two-stage structural transformation of the crystal. In the first stage the crystal enters a highly excited state. The dependence of the probability of the formation of a highly excited state on the stresses and the excitation energy of this state is determined. The reaction rate constant of the given process is described by an equation similar to the Zhurkov equation. In the second stage, under the influence of stresses, the highly excited state goes over to a structural state typical of a crystal with a defect. The influence of the stress concentrator size on the density of various types of defects formed is analyzed.