Quenched-in Vacancies in Zone-Refined Aluminum

Abstract

The decay curves of quenched-in resistivity in zone-refined aluminum have been analyzed in detail to estimate the basic data of quenched-in vacancies. The results are as follows. The formation energy of a single vacancy is 0.77±0.02 eV. The vacancy resistivity per unit concentration at room temperature is (2.5±0.8)×10^-4Ωcm, the activation energy of self-diffusion evaluated from the apparent activation energy in the second annealing stage is 1.48±0.02 eV, the migration energies of a single vacancy and a divacancy are 0.71±0.04 eV and 0.55±0.03 eV, respectively, and the binding energy of a divacancy is 0.18±0.03 eV. Finally, brief discussion is made on the vacancy sinks formed during ageing from the number of jumps necessary for a single vacancy or a divacancy to reach sinks.