The interpretation of X-ray-scattering and electron-microscopy observations on electron-irradiated copper

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Abstract
The paper examines critically the diffuse, Huang, and small-angle scattering of X-rays from Cu single crystals that were electron-irradiated at low temperatures and subsequently annealed up to about 550 K. It is shown that the experimental results are grossly incompatible with the hypothesis that in recovery stage Id/Ie all self-interstitials are mobile and that above this stage self-interstitials can only be retained as clusters. Since this hypothesis is the very basis of the one-interstitial model of radiation damage of metals, this result constitutes a serious falsification of this model. A consistent interpretation of the X-ray data is possible if they are considered together with the results of electron-microscopy observations pertaining to similar irradiation and annealing conditions. This leads to the conclusion that only a small fraction of the self-interstitials become mobile in the recovery stage I d/I E and that up to temperatures close to Stage III the majority of the self-interstitials retained are not clustered. It is further shown that in Stage III monovacancies are still immobile and that the formation of small clusters observed during Stage-III annealing is a consequence of the free migration of self-interstitials that become mobile in Stage III. All these results are in full agreement with the so-called two-interstitial model of radiation damage.