Effect of Point Imperfections on the Electrical Properties of Copper. II. Thermoelectric Power

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The changes in the thermoelectric power of copper due to the presence of interstitials and vacancies have been calculated in the free electron approximation. It is found that the changes for concentrations of defects encountered in experiments on radiation damage due to massive charged particles are, at liquid nitrogen temperature, of the same magnitude as the absolute thermoelectric power of pure copper. Both interstitials and vacancies tend to reduce the absolute thermoelectric power of copper, and this effect should be readily observable in a suitably designed experiment. It is suggested that the effect may also be used to throw additional light on the processes which occur in the annealing of an irradiated sample.