1. Introduction

The mechanical behavior of crystals, especially metallic ones, strongly depends on the intrinsic defect structure. For a broad class of metals, the motion of dislocations carries the plastic distortion, and new macroscopic properties emerge from the collective self-organization of dislocations [1‐6]. As a typical feature, homogeneous plastic distortion may become instable and localize in smaller domains of the material [7]. Understanding these localization phenomena is of great importance for many reasons: On the one hand, localized plastic distortion may be critical for the application of mechanical components. On the other hand, controlling and exploiting this self-organized (micro)structure formation (e. g. resulting in subgrain structures) may lead to desirable material properties. Moreover, considering localization and laminate formation, there are striking similarities between the microscopic occurrence in metallic materials and the macroscopic occurrence in geological materials (e. g. chevron folds as a collective buckling phenomenon of layered sedimentary rocks) [8, p. 34].