Abstract
Positron annihilation spectroscopy was carried out on nanocrystalline silver. Both lifetime and Doppler broadening were measured. High-resolution electron microscopy observations were also performed. Diffuse vacancy clusters, the sizes of which correspond to two to four vacancies, and voids of 1–5 nm diameter, were found to reduce the average atomic density of the grain boundary. Some grains grew to a diameter larger than about 70 nm during annealing the specimen from 50 to 100°C. A large fraction of the diffuse vacancy clusters and voids in the boundaries remained after annealing at 400°C. They were stabilized during annealing probably by gaseous atoms.
