A possible determination of the activation energy for self-diffusion in aluminium

Abstract

A more detailed study of the so-called stage II of the annealing out of the quenched-in resistivity in 99.995 % aluminium (whose existence was established in a preceding paper) has been carried out. The process is found to be a single activated one, the activation energy being Q=1.33±0.05 ev; the analytical shape of the isothermal curves is given by f= 1 –(t/τ)^m where m∼0.55 and τ = 2.6 10⁻⁸ exp (Q/kt)sec. Several considerations leave little doubt that Q is to be identified with the activation energy for self-diffusion in aluminium, although the nature of the defects and the mechanism of annealing out are yet not clearly understood.