Resistivity recovery in austenitic Fe-Cr-Ni alloys neutron irradiated at 23K

Abstract

The annealing of the electrical resistivity of two high-purity austenitic Fe-Cr-Ni alloys, and of Si- and Ti-doped samples has been investigated after neutron irradiation at 23K. The resistivity variations (a decrease below 190K, an increase between 190 and 600K, and a decrease above 600K) can be understood in terms of defect annihilation and short-range ordering. The following processes appear to take place: close-pair recombination and correlated defect annihilation (35-190K), long-range migration of interstitials and vacancies (190-460K), release of point defects from clusters or complexes (460-700K), self diffusion (above 700K). It is concluded that the more mobile defect migrates at long distances at a relatively high temperature (above 190K), that it is strongly trapped by silicon atoms, and that it interacts only weakly with titanium atoms.