DEFECT PRODUCTION BY LIGHT-ION, LOW-ENERGY IRRADIATIONS OF ALUMINUM.

In this paper, measurements of the production of free interstitials, i. e. , interstitials escaping vacancy capture, caused by 15 and 20 kev D** plus and 30 kev He** plus irradiations of aluminum containing 0. 05-0. 1 at. % silver have been carried out. The free interstitials diffuse around until being trapped by silver atoms, creating Al-Ag LT AN BR 100 RT AN BR mixed dumbbells which are detected by means of the channeling technique. The irradiations and the subsequent channeling analysis are performed at 100 K, i. e. , at a temperature where interstitials are mobile, but lower than stage III, where vacancies become mobile. The measured number of freely migrating interstitials turns out to be much smaller than the number of theoretically predicted Frenkel pairs, indicating recombination of a large fraction of the initially created Frenkel pairs.