Decoration (redirected from decorate)

Decoration 

an experimental method of detecting dislocations in crystals; it involves chemical or heat treatment of the crystal, so that small but visible particles (complexes of foreign atoms) appear in the volume of the crystal, along dislocation lines. The decorating particles must be small enough to differentiate defects but at the same time big enough for the particles to be visible in a microscope or ultra-microscope using visible light or infrared radiation.

The decoration method has established the existence of networks and other complex dislocation configurations. An advantage of the dislocation method is its great vividness; a disadvantage is that the decorating particles fix the dislocations and eliminate their mobility; therefore, only static arrangements of dislocations can be investigated by the decoration method.