Growth of Defect Clusters in Thin Nickel Foils during Electron Irradiation. II. Temperature Dependence of the Growth Rate of Interstitial Loops

The time-independent growth rate 2 w of the diameter of interstitial loops in thin nickel foils irradiated with 650-keV electrons in a high-voltage electron microscope at temperatures between 300 and 630 °C is investigated. For the explanation of the temperature dependence of 2 w as observed by Urban [6] a simplified diffusion model is introduced and analytically solved under steady state conditions. In the model monovacancies are included in addition to interstitials. The attractive interaction of point defects with dislocations is described by effective capture radii that differ for interstitials and vacancies. By fitting to the experimental data of [6] reasonable values for the radius of the recombination volume of interstitials and vacancies and for the capture radii are obtained.