Quenching experiments on high-purity nickel

High-purity Ni is used for quenching experiments in a He cryostat, the electrical resistivity being used as a defect indicator. The quenched-in resistivity recovers in two stages: a steep one, A, around 120°C with a decrease of 50% and a rather broad one, B, around 560°C with a decrease of 45%. The formation energy of monovacancies is determined to be (1.58 to 1.63) ± 0.05 eV. From the Meechan-Brinkman analysis H ≈︁ 1.27 eV can be estimated, whereas it can be calculated to HmIV = (1.32 to 1.27) eV using self diffusion data. Stage A is attributed to the recovery of monovacancies and of multivacancies built during migration of single vacancies, stage B is discussed as annealing of voids and perfect dislocation loops.