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Tracer diffusion

  • Symposium on Irredition-Enhanced Meterials Science and Engineering
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Abstract

The properties of point defects are of major concern in the interpretation and application of irradiation effects in solids. To this end, diffusion studies provide valuable understanding and information. A central tool is the high specific-activity radiotracer, itself a product of nuclear research. This paper reviews the development of our understanding of atomic migration phenomena, starting from the period just after World War II, when radiotracers became generally available. Application of these techniques, along with developments in other fields, soon provided detailed thermodynamic and dynamic information about microscopic point defect processes. In the cases of such simple metals as the pure noble metals, we now have convincing models of mechanism, along with quantitative values of such parameters as activation enthalpies and entropies, correlation factors, activation volumes, and the energetics of interactions with solute ions and with other defects. For other systems, such as the bcc metals, tracer studies have provided a wealth of knowledge and have revealed a rich range of phenomena, many of which have not yet been unambiguously explained.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of North Carolina, 27599-3255, Chapel Hill, NC

    Lawrence Slifkin (Professor)

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  1. Lawrence Slifkin
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Additional information

This paper is based on a presentation made in the symposium “Irradiation-Enhanced Materials Science and Engineering” presented as part of the ASM INTERNATIONAL 75th Anniversary celebration at the 1988 World Materials Congress in Chicago, IL, September 25-29, 1988, under the auspices of the Nuclear Materials Committee of TMS-AIME and ASM-MSD.

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Slifkin, L. Tracer diffusion. Metall Trans A 20, 2577–2582 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02670151

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