Thermal annealing of radiation damages produced by swift ¹⁴N and ¹⁶O ions in LiF crystals

Annealing of color centers was studied in lithium fluoride crystals, irradiated with 23-MeV nitrogen and 28-MeV oxygen ions. Basing on the optical absorption spectroscopy and reaction-rate modelling, a new interpretation of the annealing kinetics at the practically important temperatures below 500 K is suggested. Proposed model explains simultaneous decrease of the F and F 2 /F 3 + peaks as a result of migration of the F centers and formation of larger aggregates, and does not include additional assumptions about impurities and cation vacancies. It specifies the migration energy of the F centers in the ground state to be about 1.3 eV, that corresponds to earlier studies.