The determination of solute atom displacements in mixed dumbbell interstitials for the face-centered-cubic lattice

Abstract

Interactions between irradiation-produced defects and solute atoms in metals have been investigated using the channeling technique. The interaction of interest in this investigation is the trapping of self interstitials by small solute atoms thus creating a [Formula: see text] mixed dumbbell, consisting of a host atom and a solute atom straddling a lattice site in the face-centered-cubic lattice. The displacement of solute atoms from lattice sites in the mixed dumbbell configuration was determined by comparing the experimentally observed normalized yields from solute atoms and from host atoms with the yields calculated analytically using the continuum approximation. The solute atoms in Al–Mn, Al–Cu, and Cu–Be mixed dumbbells were situated at 0.5 Å from the body-centered position, whereas the Ag atoms in Al–Ag dumbbells were 0.7 Å from this position. This result is consistent with the theoretical expectation that the smallest solute atoms are displaced the greatest amount in mixed dumbbells. In addition, experimentally obtained solute atom yields for [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] angular scans were compared with calculated scans. It was concluded that for large displacements of solute atoms into the flux peaking region, the analytical (continuum) calculation is a reliable method of determining solute atom displacements, either from the aligned yields or from the angular scans.