Vacancy trapping by solute atoms during quenching in Cu-based dilute alloys studied by positron annihilation spectroscopy

Frozen-in vacancies and the recovery have been investigated in some Cu-based dilute alloys by using positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy. Cu-0.5at%Sb, Cu-0.5at%Sn and Cu-0.5at%In dilute bulk alloys were quenched to ice water from 1223 K. A pure-Cu specimen was also quenched from the same temperature. As a result, no frozen-in vacancies have been detected in as-quenched pure-Cu specimen. On the other hand, as-quenched Cu-0.5at%Sb alloy contained frozen-in thermal equilibrium vacancies with concentration of 3 x 10-5. Furthermore, these frozen-in vacancies in Cu-0.5at%Sb alloy were stable until 473 K, and began to migrate at 523 K. Finally, the Cu-Sb alloy were recovered to the fully annealed state at 823 K. This thermal stability clearly implies some interaction exists between a vacancy and Sb atom and due to the interaction, thermal equilibrium vacancies are trapped by Sb atoms during quenching.