Description of Dislocations—Burgers Vector

To describe the size and the direction of the main lattice distortion caused by a dislocation we should introduce socalled Burgers vector b. To find the Burgers vector, we should make a circuit from from atom to atom counting the same number of atomic distances in all directions. If the circuit encloses a dislocation it will not close. The vector that closes the loop is the Burgers vector b.

Dislocations shown above have Burgers vector directed perpendicular to the dislocation line. These dislocations are called edge dislocations.