Alpha-irradiation-induced removal of stacking-fault tetrahedra in quenched gold

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Abstract
Specimens of quenched gold, 1000 Å thick and containing a high concentration of stacking-fault tetrahedra, have been examined in the electron microscope before and after irradiation with alpha particles. The irradiation causes the tetrahedra to disappear. It also produces the small regions of damage which are characteristic of irradiation experiments. The results are consistent with a model in which the tetrahedron gradually accretes interstitials until it has collected a certain number, n CRIT. of them. It then breaks up rapidly. n CRIT. is of the order of 300. The interstitial accretion may be a result of momentum defocusing at the stacking-fault faces of the tetrahedron. The small regions of damage are believed to be clusters of approximately 500 vacancies. There are indications that they are found at displacement spikes.