Radiation damage produced in BaHfO3 irradiated with thermal and fast neutrons.

Abstract

Samples of ${\mathrm{BaHfO}}_{3}$ were irradiated with fast and thermal neutrons to produce $^{181}\mathrm{Hf}$. Attenuations of the \ensuremath{\gamma}-\ensuremath{\gamma} perturbed angular correlations in $^{181}\mathrm{Ta}$ were observed, and they may have been caused by the interaction between defects (produced during or after neutron irradiation) and oxygen vacancies. Several defect structures were detected. For one of the structures, an excitation energy of 12 meV was measured, which was attributed to an electron state below the conduction band. The values of the dielectric constant and of the effective electron mass were also deduced.