On the thermal mobility of lithium in metals and semiconductors

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Abstract
Only little information is hitherto available on the thermal mobility of lithium in metals and semiconductors. Therefore, we undertook a study on the thermal behavior of lithium, implanted into various solids, by means of the NDP technique. In the majority of cases, the Li mobility is strongly influenced by trapping at damage sites, which were either induced by the previous irradiation or preexisting in the target material. In those cases, a more or less complete transition from the regular range profile shape to the nuclear damage profile shape is observed. Finally, in several systems, regular thermal diffusion is found, which can be described well by Fick's law. Frequently, a fraction of the implanted Li is found to be much more mobile than the majority of the implanted material, which gives rise to surface precipitations at relatively low temperatures. The surface precipitations vanish when Li sublimation sets in.