The migration of interstitial atoms in gold II. analysis and interpretation of experiments

Abstract

In the previous paper, the results of a series of experiments were reported, whose most plausible interpretation was that low energy ion bombardment produces a type of single interstitial which is immobile below about 0°c. In this paper this model is analysed quantitatively, and is shown to yield values for the interstitial diffusion coefficient, the migration energy of the interstitial, and the binding energy of small interstitial clusters. All the experiments are shown to have a self-consistent interpretation in terms of the migration of a single interstitial which becomes mobile near 0°c with a migration energy of 0·75±0·06 ev.