Radiation damage and recovery of crystals:Frenkel vs. Schottky defect production

Abstract

A majority of radiation effects studies are connected with creation of radiation-induced defects in the crystal bulk, which causes the observed degradation of material properties. The main objective of this chapter is to describe the mechanisms of recovery from radiation damage, which operate during irradiation but are usually obscured by the concurrent process of defect creation. Accordingly, the conventional rate theory is modified with account of radiation-induced Schottky defect formation at extended defects, which often acts against the mechanisms based on the Frenkel pair production in the crystal bulk. The theory is applied for the description of technologically and fundamentally important phenomena such as irradiation creep, radiation-induced void annealing and the void ordering.