Stacking-fault energy

Stacking-fault energy (SFE) is a material property that describes the energy associated with the formation of stacking faults in crystalline materials. A stacking fault is a type of planar defect that occurs in the crystal structure when there is an incorrect sequence in the arrangement of atoms in a close-packed plane. This misalignment can arise from various processes, such as dislocation movement, phase transformations, or interactions with other defects.