Interaction between a Vacancy and an Ag Atom in Aluminium

The changes of resistivity during isothermal aging after quenching were measured in Al-0.72wt%Ag, Al-3.0wt%Ag binary alloys, Al-3.0wt%Ag-0.10wt%Ge, Al-3.0wt%Ag-0.01wt%In and Al-3.0wt%Ag-0.01wt%Sn ternary alloys and the interaction between a vacancy and an Ag atom was studied. General features of clustering in these ternary alloys were not different from those in Al-3.0wt%Ag binary alloy. Therefore, the binding energy between a vacancy and an Ag atom could be obtained by taking the ratio of time, t M t , required to reach the maximum of electrical resistivity in ternary alloys with that time, t M b , in binary alloy and using the already known binding energy between a vacancy and a second solute atom. Binding energy between a vacancy and an Ag atom was estimated to be 0.25±0.05 eV.