The effect of radiation on twinning in quartz

The Dauphine twinning behavior of quartz subjected to irradiation was studied at room temperature and elevated temperatures. The presence of defects produced by irradiation was utilized to pin the domain wall motion. Both neutrons and gamma-rays were employed for this investigation. The stress required to nucleate an appreciable volume of twins is about twice as high for irradiated crystals than those unirradiated. However, the coercive stress required for causing a complete orientation switch was not much different between irradiated and unirradiated crystals