Point-Defect Migration and Binding in Metals

Abstract

The kinetics of decay of an excess defect concentration in metals is examined with special attention to the initial stages of decay. A particular case, excess vacancy migration to sinks in a slightly impure metal, is treated in detail; analog computer plots of isothermal and constant-tempering-rate recovery studies are presented and analyzed. Initial recovery is determined by the migration energy only; final recovery is determined by an energy generally less than the sum of the migration plus vacancy-impurity binding energy but more than the migration energy alone. Initial and final recovery are easily resolved into two annealing states. The intermediate recovery range may actually give rise to a resistivity increase.