From mild to wild fluctuations in crystal plasticity

Strain-dependent evolution of avalanche dynamics in bulk metallic glass

Avalanche phenomena characterized by power-law scaling are observed in amorphous solids and many other nonequilibrium systems during their deformation. Avalanches in these systems often exhibit scale invariance, a feature reminiscent of critical phenomena and universality classes, although their fundamental nature remains unclear. In this paper, we use in situ acoustic emission techniques to experimentally investigate the characteristics and evolution of avalanches during the deformation process of bulk metallic glass (BMG), a representative amorphous solid. We observed abundant avalanche events from the microplastic deformation region to the failure of the sample. We find that avalanches are power-law distributed with an exponent decreasing from 1.61 to 1.49 with increasing deformation throughout the tensile experiment. By quantitatively analyzing the strong strain dependence of various avalanche characteristics, we highlight the importance of additional coefficients that complete the widely studied finite size scaling description of avalanche dynamics and revealed a strain-mediated avalanche scaling mechanism. Through surface morphology analysis and spectral analysis of avalanche signals in BMG samples, we conclude that the underlying process of these avalanches are not macroscopic, such as cracks and large shear band propagation, but is instead related to nanoscale microstructural adjustments. Our results encourage further exploration into the microscopic origins of avalanches and suggest that theoretical frameworks beyond finite-size scaling merit more in-depth investigations.

Acoustic emission of kidney stones: a medical adaptation of statistical breakdown mechanisms

Kidney stones have a prevalence rate of > 10% in some countries. There has been a significant increase in surgery to treat kidney stones over the last 10 years, and it is crucial that such techniques are as effective as possible, while limiting complications. A selection of kidney stones with different chemical and structural properties were subjected to compression. Under compression, they emit acoustic signals called crackling noise. The variability of the crackling noise was surprisingly great comparing weddellite, cystine and uric acid stones. Two types of signals were found in all stones. At high energies of the emitted sound waves, we found avalanche behaviour, while all stones also showed signals of local, uncorrelated collapse. These two types of events are called 'wild' for avalanches and 'mild' for uncorrelated events. The key observation is that the crossover from mild to wild collapse events differs greatly between different stones. Weddellite showed brittle collapse, extremely low crossover energies (< 5 aJ) and wild avalanches over 6 orders of magnitude. In cystine and uric acid stones, the collapse was more complicated with a dominance of local "mild" breakings, although they all contained some stress-induced collective avalanches. Cystine stones had high crossover energies, typically [Formula: see text] 750 aJ, and a narrow window over which they showed wild avalanches. Uric acid stones gave moderate values of crossover energies, [Formula: see text] 200 aJ, and wild avalanche behaviour for [Formula: see text] 3 orders of magnitude. Further research extended to all stone types, and measurement of stone responses to different lithotripsy strategies, will assist in optimisation of settings of the laser and other lithotripsy devices to insight fragmentation by targeting the 'wild' avalanche regime.

Inelastic rotations and pseudoturbulent plastic avalanches in crystals

Plastic deformations in crystals produce microstructures with randomly oriented patches of unstressed lattice forming complex textures. We use a mesoscopic Landau-type tensorial model of crystal plasticity to show that in such textures rotations can originate from crystallographically exact microslips which self organize in the form of laminates of a pseudotwin type. The formation of such laminates can be viewed as an effective internal "wrinkling" of the crystal lattice. While such "wrinkling" disguises itself as an elastically neutral rotation, behind it is inherently dissipative, dislocation-mediated process. Our numerical experiments reveal pseudoturbulent effective rotations with power-law distributed spatial correlations which suggests that the process of dislocational self-organization is inherently unstable and points toward the necessity of a probabilistic description of crystal plasticity.

Dislocation avalanches are like earthquakes on the micron scale

Compression experiments on micron-scale specimens and acoustic emission (AE) measurements on bulk samples revealed that the dislocation motion resembles a stick-slip process - a series of unpredictable local strain bursts with a scale-free size distribution. Here we present a unique experimental set-up, which detects weak AE waves of dislocation slip during the compression of Zn micropillars. Profound correlation is observed between the energies of deformation events and the emitted AE signals that, as we conclude, are induced by the collective dissipative motion of dislocations. The AE data also reveal a two-level structure of plastic events, which otherwise appear as a single stress drop. Hence, our experiments and simulations unravel the missing relationship between the properties of acoustic signals and the corresponding local deformation events. We further show by statistical analyses that despite fundamental differences in deformation mechanism and involved length- and time-scales, dislocation avalanches and earthquakes are essentially alike.

Change of Acoustic Emission Characteristics during Temperature Induced Transition from Twinning to Dislocation Slip under Compression in Polycrystalline Sn

In this study, acoustic emission (AE) measurements on polycrystalline tin as a function of temperature at different driving rates under compression were carried out. It is shown that there is a definite difference between the acoustic emission characteristics belonging to twinning (low temperatures) as well as to dislocation slip (high temperatures). The stress averaged values of the exponents of the energy probability density functions decreased from ε = 1.45 ± 0.05 (-60 °C) to ε = 1.20 ± 0.15 (50 °C) at a driving rate of ε=0.15&nbsp;s-1, and the total acoustic energy decreased by three orders of magnitude with increasing temperature. In addition, the exponent γ in the scaling relation S_AE~D_AE^γ (S_AE is the area and D_AE is the duration) also shows similar temperature dependence (changing from γ = 1.78 ± 0.08 to γ = 1.35 ± 0.05), illustrating that the avalanche statistics belong to two different microscopic deformation mechanisms. The power law scaling relations were also analyzed, taking into account that the detected signal is always the convolution of the source signal and the transfer function of the system. It was obtained that approximate values of the power exponents can be obtained from the parts of the above functions, belonging to large values of parameters. At short duration times, the attenuation effect of the AE detection system dominates the time dependence, from which the characteristic attenuation time, τ_a, was determined as τ_a ≅ 70 μs.

Dislocation avalanches from strain-controlled loading: A discrete dislocation dynamics study

We study strain-controlled plastic deformation of crystalline solids via two-dimensional discrete dislocation dynamics simulations. To this end, we characterize the average stress-strain curves as well as the statistical properties of strain bursts and the related stress drops as a function of the imposed strain rate and the stiffness of the specimen-machine system. The dislocation system exhibits strain-rate sensitivity such that a larger imposed strain rate results in a higher average stress at a given strain. In the limit of small strain rate and driving spring stiffness, the sizes and durations of the dislocation avalanches are power law distributed up to a cutoff scale, and exhibit temporally asymmetric average shapes. We discuss the dependence of the results on the driving parameters and compare our results to those from previous simulations where quasistatic stress-controlled loading was used.

Twisting of a Pristine α-Fe Nanowire: From Wild Dislocation Avalanches to Mild Local Amorphization

The torsion of pristine α-Fe nanowires was studied by molecular dynamics simulations. Torsion-induced plastic deformation in pristine nanowires is divided into two regimes. Under weak torsion, plastic deformation leads to dislocation nucleation and propagation. Twisting-induced dislocations are mainly 12<111> screw dislocations in a <112>-oriented nanowire. The nucleation and propagation of these dislocations were found to form avalanches which generate the emission of energy jerks. Their probability distribution function (PDF) showed power laws with mixing between different energy exponents. The mixing stemmed from simultaneous axial and radial dislocation movements. The power-law distribution indicated strongly correlated 'wild' dislocation dynamics. At the end of this regime, the dislocation pattern was frozen, and further twisting of the nanowire did not change the dislocation pattern. Instead, it induced local amorphization at the grip points at the ends of the sample. This "melting" generated highly dampened, mild avalanches. We compared the deformation mechanisms of twinned and pristine α-Fe nanowires under torsion.

Single-Particle Studies Reveal a Nanoscale Mechanism for Elastic, Bright, and Repeatable ZnS:Mn Mechanoluminescence in a Low-Pressure Regime

Mechanoluminescent materials, which emit light in response to elastic deformation, are demanded for use as in situ stress sensors. ZnS doped with Mn is known to exhibit one of the lowest reported thresholds for appearance of mechanoluminescence, with repeatable light emission under contact pressure <10 MPa. The physical basis for such behavior remains as yet unclear. Here, reliable microscopic detection of mechanoluminescence of single ZnS:Mn microparticles, in combination with nanoscale structural characterization, provides evidence that the mechanoluminescent properties of these particles result from interplay between a non-centrosymmetric crystal lattice and its defects, viz., dislocations and stacking faults. Statistical analysis of the distributions of mechanoluminescence energy release trajectories reveals two distinct mechanisms of excitation: one attributable to a piezo-phototronic effect and the other due to dislocation motion. At pressures below 8.1 MPa, both mechanisms contribute to mechanoluminescent output, with a dominant contribution from the piezo-phototronic mechanism. In contrast, above 8.1 MPa, dislocation motion is the primary excitation source. For the piezo-phototronic mechanism, we propose a specific model that accounts for elastic ZnS:Mn mechanoluminescence under very low pressure. The charged interfaces in stacking faults lead to the presence of filled traps, which otherwise would be empty in the absence of the built-in electric field. Upon application of external stress, local enhancement of the piezoelectric field at the stacking faults' interfaces facilitates release of the trapped carriers and subsequent luminescence. This field enhancement explains how <10 MPa pressure produces thousands of photons.

Millisecond dynamics of deformation bands during discontinuous creep in an AlMg polycrystal

Formation of bands of macroscopic strain localization during staircase creep in an AlMg polycrystal is studied by the acoustic emission (AE) technique and high-speed video recording with an image acquisition rate up to 50 000 frames per second. The simultaneous measurements by two methods allow us to distinguish different types of embryo deformation bands and concomitant AE signals, and to establish correlations between the band evolution and the acoustic response. It is found that the fastest stages of band formation, associated with its emergence to the surface and subsequent accelerated expansion, generate complex AE bursts in the frequency band ∼0.05-1 MHz. The correlations hidden in the complex structure of an individual acoustic burst are investigated by methods of statistical and fractal analysis. On the other hand, relationships between average parameters of various physical responses to discontinuous creep are assessed. Particularly, a close correspondence is found between the envelope of the acoustic burst and the rate of stress change during formation of a single deformation band. Evolution of dynamical behavior of embryo bands with increasing creep stress is discussed. Notably, a qualitative change in the AE waveform observed on approaching the ultimate stress is considered from the viewpoint of anticipation of the oncoming fracture.

Variety of scaling behaviors in nanocrystalline plasticity

We address the question of why larger, high-symmetry crystals are mostly weak, ductile, and statistically subcritical, while smaller crystals with the same symmetry are strong, brittle and supercritical. We link it to another question of why intermittent elasto-plastic deformation of submicron crystals features highly unusual size sensitivity of scaling exponents. We use a minimal integer-valued automaton model of crystal plasticity to show that with growing variance of quenched disorder, which can serve in this case as a proxy for increasing size, submicron crystals undergo a crossover from spin-glass marginality to criticality characterizing the second order brittle-to-ductile (BD) transition. We argue that this crossover is behind the nonuniversality of scaling exponents observed in physical and numerical experiments. The nonuniversality emerges only if the quenched disorder is elastically incompatible, and it disappears if the disorder is compatible.

Asymmetric Damage Avalanche Shape in Quasibrittle Materials and Subavalanche (Aftershock) Clusters

Crackling dynamics is characterized by a release of incoming energy through intermittent avalanches. The shape, i.e., the internal temporal structure of these avalanches, gives insightful information about the physical processes involved. It was experimentally shown recently that progressive damage toward compressive failure of quasibrittle materials can be mapped onto the universality class of interface depinning when considering scaling relationships between the global characteristics of the microcracking avalanches. Here we show, for three concrete materials and from a detailed analysis of the acoustic emission waveforms generated by microcracking events, that the shape of these damage avalanches is strongly asymmetric, characterized by a very slow decay. This remarkable asymmetry, at odds with mean-field depinning predictions, could be explained, in these quasibrittle materials, by retardation effects induced by enhanced viscoelastic processes within a fracture process zone generated by the damage avalanche as it progresses. It is associated with clusters of subavalanches, or aftershocks, within the main avalanche.

Scaling in the Local Strain-Rate Field during Jerky Flow in an Al-3%Mg Alloy

Jerky flow in alloys, or the Portevin-Le Chatelier effect, presents an outstanding example of self-organization phenomena in plasticity. Recent acoustic emission investigations revealed that its microscopic dynamics is governed by scale invariance manifested as power-law statistics of intermittent events. As the macroscopic stress serrations show both scale invariance and characteristic scales, the micro-macro transition is an intricate question requiring an assessment of intermediate behaviors. The first attempt of such an investigation is undertaken in the present paper by virtue of a one-dimensional (1D) local extensometry technique and statistical analysis of time series. The data obtained complete the missing link and bear evidence to a coexistence of characteristic large events and power laws for smaller events. The scale separation is interpreted in terms of the phenomena of self-organized criticality and synchronization in complex systems. Furthermore, it is found that both the stress serrations and local strain-rate bursts agree with the so-called fluctuation scaling related to general mathematical laws and unifying various specific mechanisms proposed to explain scale invariance in diverse systems. Prospects of further investigations including the duality manifested by a wavy spatial organization of the local bursts of plastic deformation are discussed.

Rigidity-Controlled Crossover: From Spinodal to Critical Failure

Failure in disordered solids is accompanied by intermittent fluctuations extending over a broad range of scales. The implied scaling has been previously associated with either spinodal or critical points. We use an analytically transparent mean-field model to show that both analogies are relevant near the brittle-to-ductile transition. Our study indicates that in addition to the strength of quenched disorder, an appropriately chosen global measure of rigidity (connectivity) can be also used to tune the system to criticality. By interpreting rigidity as a timelike variable we reveal an intriguing parallel between earthquake-type critical failure and Burgers turbulence.

Nanostrain sensitivity in a wire torsion experiment

The feasibility of a thin-wire torsion stress-strain experiment with nanostrain sensitivity is demonstrated. A gauge length of 50 m was made possible by using The Monument, London, thereby restoring it to its original purpose as a scientific instrument. A wire of 150 μm diameter was studied using the load-unload method, and data were recorded in the elastic regime and through the elastic-plastic transition. Analysis of this preliminary experiment suggested some necessary improvements to the equipment and methods. Progress towards definitive experiments is described together with difficulties still to be overcome.

Landau-Type Theory of Planar Crystal Plasticity

We show that nonlinear continuum elasticity can be effective in modeling plastic flows in crystals if it is viewed as a Landau theory with an infinite number of equivalent energy wells whose configuration is dictated by the symmetry group GL(2,Z). Quasistatic loading can be then handled by athermal dynamics, while lattice-based discretization can play the role of regularization. As a proof of principle, we study dislocation nucleation in a homogeneously sheared 2D crystal and show that the global tensorial invariance of the elastic energy foments the development of complexity in the configuration of collectively nucleating defects. A crucial role in this process is played by the unstable higher symmetry crystallographic phases, typically thought to be unrelated to plastic flow.

Yield Precursor Dislocation Avalanches in Small Crystals: The Irreversibility Transition

The transition from elastic to plastic deformation in crystalline metals shares history dependence and scale-invariant avalanche signature with other nonequilibrium systems under external loading such as colloidal suspensions. These other systems exhibit transitions with clear analogies to work hardening and yield stress, with many typically undergoing purely elastic behavior only after "training" through repeated cyclic loading; studies in these other systems show a power-law scaling of the hysteresis loop extent and of the training time as the peak load approaches a so-called reversible-to-irreversible transition (RIT). We discover here that deformation of small crystals shares these key characteristics: yielding and hysteresis in uniaxial compression experiments of single-crystalline Cu nano- and micropillars decay under repeated cyclic loading. The amplitude and decay time of the yield precursor avalanches diverge as the peak stress approaches failure stress for each pillar, with a power-law scaling virtually equivalent to RITs in other nonequilibrium systems.

Ice: the paradigm of wild plasticity

Ice plasticity has been thoroughly studied, owing to its importance in glaciers and ice sheets dynamics. In particular, its anisotropy (easy basal slip) has been suspected for a long time, then fully characterized 40 years ago. More recently emerged the interest of ice as a model material to study some fundamental aspects of crystalline plasticity. An example is the nature of plastic fluctuations and collective dislocation dynamics. Twenty years ago, acoustic emission measurements performed during the deformation of ice single crystals revealed that plastic 'flow' proceeds through intermittent dislocation avalanches, power law distributed in size and energy. This means that most of ice plasticity takes place through few, very large avalanches, thus qualifying associated plastic fluctuations as 'wild'. This launched an intense research activity on plastic intermittency in the Material Science community. The interest of ice in this debate is reviewed, from a comparison with other crystalline materials. In this context, ice appears as an extreme case of plastic intermittency, characterized by scale-free fluctuations, complex space and time correlations as well as avalanche triggering. In other words, ice can be considered as the paradigm of wild plasticity. This article is part of the theme issue 'The physics and chemistry of ice: scaffolding across scales, from the viability of life to the formation of planets'.

Universality Class of Nanocrystal Plasticity: Localization and Self-Organization in Discrete Dislocation Dynamics

The universality class of the avalanche behavior in plastically deforming crystalline and amorphous systems has been commonly discussed, despite the fact that the microscopic defect character in each of these systems is different. In contrast to amorphous systems, crystalline flow stress increases dramatically at high strains and/or loading rates. We perform simulations of a two-dimensional discrete dislocation dynamics model that minimally captures the phenomenology of nanocrystalline deformation. In the context of this model, we demonstrate that a classic rate dependence of dislocation plasticity at large rates (>10^{3}/s) fundamentally controls the system's statistical character as it competes with dislocation nucleation: At large rates, the behavior is statistically dominated by long-range correlations of "dragged" mobile dislocations. At small rates, plasticity localization dominates in small volumes and a spatial integration of avalanche behavior takes place.

Superior plasticity stability and excellent strength in Ti-55531 alloy micropillars via harmony slip in nanoscale α/β phases

Excellent stability of plasticity and high strength are acquired in Ti55531 alloy micropillars via introducing a high density of deformable nanoscale α phase into a β matrix. The yield strength of the pillars is as high as 2.26 GPa irrespective of pillar sizes ranging from 6 to 0.3 μm, which is high enough to activate dislocation slip both in ductile α precipitates and the β matrix. The harmony slip model was proposed to interpret slip transmission between the nanoscale α phase and the divided β matrix, and both α and β accommodate their individual plasticity during compression. This results in an excellent combination of high strength and stable plasticity in Ti55531 alloy micron-to submicron pillars. The results highlight the novel strengthening and toughening mechanisms of nanostructured alloys and a specific type of microstructure that exhibits stable plasticity for nano/microdevices.

Rotatable precipitates change the scale-free to scale dependent statistics in compressed Ti nano-pillars

Compressed nano-pillars crackle from moving dislocations, which reduces plastic stability. Crackling noise is characterized by stress drops or strain bursts, which scale over a large region of sizes leading to power law statistics. Here we report that this “classic” behaviour is not valid in Ti-based nanopillars for a counterintuitive reason: we tailor precipitates inside the nano-pillar, which “regulate” the flux of dislocations. It is not because the nano-pillars become too small to sustain large dislocation movements, the effect is hence independent of size. Our precipitates act as “rotors”: local stress initiates the rotation of inclusions, which reduces the stress amplitudes dramatically. The size distribution of stress drops simultaneously changes from power law to exponential. Rotors act like revolving doors limiting the number of passing dislocations. Hence each collapse becomes weak. We present experimental evidence for Ti-based nano-pillars (diameters between 300 nm and 2 μm) with power law distributions of crackling noise P(s) ∼ s^−τ with τ ∼ 2 in the defect free or non-rotatable precipitate states. Rotors change the size distribution to P(s) ∼ exp(−s/s₀). Rotors are inclusions of ω-phase that aligns under stress along slip planes and limit dislocation glide to small distances with high nucleation rates. This opens new ways to make nano-pillars more stable.

Intermittent plasticity in individual grains: A study using high energy x-ray diffraction

Long-standing evidence suggests that plasticity in metals may proceed in an intermittent fashion. While the documentation of intermittency in plastically deforming materials has been achieved in several experimental settings, efforts to draw connections from dislocation motion and structure development to stress relaxation have been limited, especially in the bulk of deforming polycrystals. This work uses high energy x-ray diffraction measurements to build these links by characterizing plastic deformation events inside individual deforming grains in both the titanium alloy, Ti-7Al, and the magnesium alloy, AZ31. This analysis is performed by combining macroscopic stress relaxation data, complete grain stress states found using far-field high energy diffraction microscopy, and rapid x-ray diffraction spot measurements made using a Mixed-Mode Pixel Array Detector. Changes in the dislocation content within the deforming grains are monitored using the evolution of the full 3-D shapes of the diffraction spot intensity distributions in reciprocal space. The results for the Ti-7Al alloy show the presence of large stress fluctuations in contrast to AZ31, which shows a lesser degree of intermittent plastic flow.

Complexity and Anisotropy of Plastic Flow of α-Ti Probed by Acoustic Emission and Local Extensometry

Current progress in the prediction of mechanical behavior of solids requires understanding of spatiotemporal complexity of plastic flow caused by self-organization of crystal defects. It may be particularly important in hexagonal materials because of their strong anisotropy and combination of different mechanisms of plasticity, such as dislocation glide and twinning. These materials often display complex behavior even on the macroscopic scale of deformation curves, e.g., a peculiar three-stage elastoplastic transition, the origin of which is a matter of debates. The present work is devoted to a multiscale study of plastic flow in α-Ti, based on simultaneous recording of deformation curves, 1D local strain field, and acoustic emission (AE). It is found that the average AE activity also reveals three-stage behavior, but in a qualitatively different way depending on the crystallographic orientation of the sample axis. On the finer scale, the statistical analysis of AE events and local strain rates testifies to an avalanche-like character of dislocation processes, reflected in power-law probability distribution functions. The results are discussed from the viewpoint of collective dislocation dynamics and are confronted to predictions of a recent micromechanical model of Ti strain hardening.

Correlation versus randomization of jerky flow in an AlMgScZr alloy using acoustic emission

Jerky flow in solids results from collective dynamics of dislocations which gives rise to serrated deformation curves and a complex evolution of the strain heterogeneity. A rich example of this phenomenon is the Portevin-Le Chatelier effect in alloys. The corresponding spatiotemporal patterns showed some universal features which provided a basis for a well-known phenomenological classification. Recent studies revealed peculiar features in both the stress serration sequences and the kinematics of deformation bands in Al-based alloys containing fine microstructure elements, such as nanosize precipitates and/or submicron grains. In the present work, jerky flow of an AlMgScZr alloy is studied using statistical analysis of stress serrations and the accompanying acoustic emission. As in the case of coarse-grained binary AlMg alloys, the amplitude distributions of acoustic events obey a power-law scaling which is usually considered as evidence of avalanchelike dynamics. However, the scaling exponents display specific dependences on the strain and strain rate for the investigated materials. The observed effects bear evidence to a competition between the phenomena of synchronization and randomization of dislocation avalanches, which may shed light on the mechanisms leading to a high variety of jerky flow patterns observed in applied alloys.

Excitation Spectra in Crystal Plasticity

Plastically deforming crystals exhibit scale-free fluctuations that are similar to those observed in driven disordered elastic systems close to depinning, but the nature of the yielding critical point is still debated. Here, we study the marginal stability of ensembles of dislocations and compute their excitation spectrum in two and three dimensions. Our results show the presence of a singularity in the distribution of excitation stresses, i.e., the stress needed to make a localized region unstable, that is remarkably similar to the one measured in amorphous plasticity and spin glasses. These results allow us to understand recent observations of extended criticality in bursty crystal plasticity and explain how they originate from the presence of a pseudogap in the excitation spectrum.

Acoustic emission multiplets as early warnings of fatigue failure in metallic materials

Fatigue, i.e. the failure of mechanical structures under cycling loading, remains a considerable technological challenge as it occurs unexpectedly when the structure is operating apparently in a safe and steady state regime, without external signs of mechanical deterioration. Here we report for the first time, in different metallic materials, the detection of acoustic emissions specific of fatigue crack growth. These so-called acoustic multiplets are characterized by nearly identical waveforms, signature of a unique source, are repeatedly triggered over many successive loading cycles at the same stress level, and originate from a single location. They mark the slow, incremental propagation of a fatigue crack at each cycle, or the rubbing along its faces. Being specific to fatigue cracking, they can be used as early warnings of crack propagation, which will ultimately lead to structural failure. Their detection and characterization thus open the way towards a new, reliable monitoring of the onset of fatigue cracking during mechanical tests or within structures in service.

Experimental investigation of the effect of thresholding on temporal statistics of avalanches

Avalanchelike behavior reflected in power-law statistics is a ubiquitous property of extended systems addressed in a number of generic models. The paper presents an experimental investigation of the effect of thresholding on the statistics of durations and waiting times between avalanches using acoustic emission accompanying unstable plastic deformation. It is found that durations of acoustic events obey power-law statistical distributions robust against thresholding. The quiescent time distributions follow the Poisson law for low threshold values. Both these results corroborate the hypothesis that plastic deformation is akin to the phenomena associated with self-organized criticality (SOC), often advanced on the basis of power-law amplitude statistics. Increasing the threshold height enforces deviation from the Poisson distributions toward apparent power-law behavior. Such a thresholding effect may hinder the experimental determination of SOC-like dynamics because of the inevitable noise.