The annealing of deformed sodium

High purity sodium wires have been extended in liquid helium and then annealed over the range 3–150°K. A rather general annealing is seen, indicating a fairly uniform distribution of activation energies. Annealing peaks are seen at 15° and at about 90°, this last peak being very broad and being probably associated with dislocation climb. The kinetics of the annealing have been studied. The activation energies obtained are not consistent with the recent experiments of Sullivan and Weymouth (1964) on the equilibrium vacancy concentration in sodium.