Atomic Defects in Metals · Mg

This chapter discusses defect properties and isochronal annealing behavior of magnesium (Mg). Defect annealing has been investigated for Mg after e^--irradiation after fast n-irradiation as well as after quenching and cold work. Properties of Frenkel defects (FD), self-interstitial atoms (SIA), and vacancies (V) in magnesium are tabulated. The annealing peak observed around 13 K has been tentatively attributed to long range SIA migration. Stage III has been observed to be dose dependent and is observed after irradiation, quench and cold work. Additional support for the attribution to vacancy migration comes from DXS, that shows the dissolution of SIA-clusters and some indication of the formation of vacancy clusters. In spite of the large errors there seems to be no unique well defined activation energy for this stage; this might be explained by anisotropic vacancy migration; however, this assumption is not supported by the self-diffusion data. There is no clearly separated stage V; total annealing of defect clusters after e^--irradiation was observed. Several annealing peaks have been observed for dilute Mg(Ag) alloys after e^--irradiation. There is a small increase of the resistivity due to complex formation during annealing. The SIA-solute atom (SA) interaction are tabulated.