LV. Some properties of vacancies and interstitials in Cu3Au

Abstract

A series of experiments, based on electrical resistivity measurements, have resulted in the following conclusions : The activation energy for formation of vacancies is about 1·0 ev and for migration about 0·9 ev. The ordering process, involving the interaction of vacancies with wrong atoms, is complex; at least two relaxation processes are shown to operate. The decay time of an excess vacancy concentration appears to be limited by the presence of vacancy capturing impurities, the concentration of which can be varied by suitable heat treatment. Interstitials are more mobile than vacancies at a given temperature, but these too are probably trapped and can in turn contribute to the limitation of the vacancy decay time.