A channelling study of vacancy-solute complexes in Al-0.04 at.% Sn

Abstract
Ion channelling measurements in an Al-0.04 at.% Sn crystal have shown that the Sn atoms trap irradiation induced vacancies to create trivacancy-Sn, tetravacancy-Sn and hexavacancy-Sn complexes. The Sn atoms in these complexes occupy interstitial positions at the centre of a triangle of nearest neighbour vacancies, at the tetrahedral site and at the octahedral site respectively. Quantitative measurements were made of (i) the growth of these complexes caused by vacancy trapping at 200K following 35K irradiation, and (ii) the decay of these complexes caused by self-interstitial trapping during irradiation at 70K.