Models for the decay of radiation-induced conduction

The diffusion-limited recombination and tunneling-controlled recombination theories that account for the decay of insulator conductivity following irradiation are described. The diffusion-controlled recombination with a Coulomb or other long-ranged interaction shows a time-dependent reaction rate, but does not agree with experimental results. The tunneling model with first-order kinetics does agree with experimental results. A comparison of the two models and the experimental data obtained for the radiation-induced conductivity of a polyethylene sheet are presented.>