An in-situ transmission electron microscopy straining technique has been used to investigate the dynamics of dislocation-defect interactions in ion-irradiated copper and the subsequent formation of defect-free channels. Defect removal frequently required interaction with multiple dislocations, although screw dislocations were more efficient at annihilating defects than edge dislocations were. The defect pinning strength was determined from the dislocation curvature prior to breakaway and exhibited values ranging from 15 to 175 MPa. Pre-existing dislocations percolated through the defect field but did not show (...) long-range motion, indicating that they are not responsible for creating the defect-free channels and have a limited contribution to the total plasticity. Defect-free channels were associated with the movement of many dislocations, which originated from grain boundaries or regions of high stress concentration such as at a crack tip. These experimental results are compared with atomistic simulations of the interaction of partial dislocations with defects in copper and a dispersed-barrier-hardening crystal plasticity model to correlate the observations to bulk mechanical properties. (shrink)