Migration and elimination characteristics of the self-interstitials in a Ag—30-at.%-Zn alloy

A detailed analysis of the enhanced Zener ordering rate in a Ag—30-at.%-Zn alloy has been carried out using elastic after-effect measurements for three conditions: (i) quasistationary state in a fast-electron flux, (ii) stationary state in a fast-electron flux, and (iii) upon suppression of the flux when steady-state regime prevailed. From a comparison of these results, the behavior of self-interstitial atoms has been investigated. The range 0.2-0.4 of the melting-point temperature was studied and in this range the jump frequency for the self-interstitials is $3\times {10}^{18}\exp [-0.94\mathrm{} (\mathrm{eV})/kT]$ which is slower than that of the vacancies. Both self-interstitials and vacancies contribute to the ordering process and the extent of their contributions is discussed. It was found that dislocations were 10 times more efficient as sinks for interstitials than as sinks for vacancies. Some possible reasons for these unusual characteristics are put forward and discussed.