Abstract
We have studied the recovery of electrical resistivity of 99.999%-pure gold after 2-MeV electron irradiation near 80°K. It was found that the recovery in the last 55% of stage III (240-340°K) is characterized by second-order annealing kinetics with an activation energy of 0.80±0.04 eV. The second-order nature of the recovery and other related evidence indicate that the recovery process consists of the random recombination of interstitials and vacancies.