On short-range migration of defects in electron-irradiated Fe–16Cr alloys

The residual resistivity recovery method is used to study the migration of radiation-induced defects and their interaction with impurity atoms of Si (0.2, 0.5, and 0.75 at%) and Au (0.13 at%) in electron-irradiated Fe–16Cr alloys at 80–180 K. Doping with impurities results in the suppression of residual resistivity recovery, thus indicating the trapping of migrating defects at impurity atoms, which is accompanied by a decrease in the specific contribution of defects to residual electrical resistivity. The trapping of migrating defects at impurity atoms starts at 150 K in Fe–16Cr–0.13Au and Fe–16Cr–0.2Si and at 130 K in Fe–16Cr–0.75Si. Smooth and monotonous suppression of residual resistivity recovery at sufficiently large impurity concentrations indicates the suppression of correlated recombination in Fe–16Cr–0.13Au and Fe–16Cr–0.2Si, as well as the suppression of the recombination of close pairs in Fe–16Cr–0.5Si and Fe–16Cr–0.75Si. The smooth and monotonous suppression of residual resistivity recovery and the decrease in the specific contribution of defects at trapping indicate a short-range migration of vacancies in the temperature range 130–180 K. Long-range migration of defects starts above 180 K.