Length Changes in Electron-Irradiated High-Purity Germanium

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Abstract
Irradiation of a high‐purity intrinsic single‐crystal germanium sample at either liquid‐helium or liquid‐nitrogen temperature by 4.5‐MeV electrons produced a large initial expansion which approached saturation with flux. The initial expansion at liquid‐helium temperature of ΔL/L=+78×10−24 per incident electron/cm2 is nearly an order of magnitude larger than has been observed in either n‐ or p‐type material. The magnitude of this effect is difficult to account for on the basis of the observations of the n‐ and p‐type samples, and the difficulty of interpretation is compounded by the fact that no electrical measurements can be made on pure material at low temperatures. Two highly speculative models are briefly discussed.