Self diffusion in gallium

Abstract

In the present studies of self diffusion in gallium the diffusion coefficients in single crystals and coarse-grained polycrystals were found to be extremely low. The results are only claimed to be of qualitative interest because of limitations set mainly by the short half-life of the radiotracer used. Even so two main conclusions can be drawn: (i) there is no clear evidence of marked anisotropy of self diffusion, and (ii) for gallium and other soft or friable metals a microtome sectioning technique is to be preferred to a grinding method.