The formation of secondary defects in face-centred cubic metals

Abstract

The formation of secondary defects by quenching has been studied in Ag and Cu of several different purities. It is shown implicitly that the mobility of vacancies and formation of visible defects are strongly dependent on the concentration of residual oxygen in the materials. An estimate of the O₂/vacancy binding energy in copper is obtained, and the implications of the results on previous experiments performed on less pure materials are briefly discussed.