Monovacancy formation energy in copper, silver, and gold by positron annihilation

Abstract

Monovacancy formation energies in copper, silver, and gold have been deduced from the temperature variation of the peak counting rate in the angular correlation curve of positron annihilation radiation from these metals. The counting rate was temperature dependent over the entire temperature range, including temperatures so low that no trapping of positrons at vacancies is effective. At these temperatures the increase in counting rate results from thermal expansion of the lattice. By separating this thermal expansion effect from the vacancy trapping effect at higher temperatures, we obtained values for the monovacancy formation energyE _1v for copper, silver, and gold to 1.29±0.02 eV, 1.16±0.02 eV, and 0.97±0.01 eV, respectively.