Dependence of long‐lived defect creation on excitation density in MgO single crystals

Abstract

Abstract The processes of the creation, stabilization and annealing of anion Frenkel defects have been investigated in MgO and MgO:Be single crystals irradiated by α particles, uranium swift ions or fast neutrons at 300 K and also additionally irradiated by 5 keV electrons at 6 K. Neutral oxygen interstitials undergo stabilization due to their association with the holes localized near Be 2+ ions or near cation vacancies. The peculiarities of the processes of nonimpact creation and stabilization of point defects under conditions of a high density of electronic excitations formed in the tracks of swift heavy ions have been considered by the example of MgO crystals, where the creation energy of a pair of long‐lived Frenkel defects exceeds the energy gap, E FD > E g . (© 2007 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)