Associated processes to the szilard-chalmers effect in crystals—I Hexammino-cobaltic nitrate. Section 2. Thermal annealing of the crystalline defects after irradiation

Abstract

The thermal annealing of neutron irradiated {Co(NH 3) 6}(NO 3) 3 was investigated to determine the order of the fast annealing processes, the activation energy, the fraction annealing as a function of the temperature and the effect of the history of the sample on the annealing process. It was observed that the fast thermal annealing process formally obeys first-order kinetics. Strictly the kinetics may be explained by processes distributed in activation energy. The maximum of the activation energy spectrum is about 0·78 eV. The fraction destined to anneal is proportional to the temperature, but the saturation value of the retention for different samples heated at the same temperature, is not the same. It was observed that the radiation history of the sample has a great influence on the annealing process and a quantitative treatment of the effects is determined.