Radiation damage in Cu2O

Cu2O specimens irradiated with alpha radiation at high temperature showed some reduction in the dislocation density, which was less than the reduction observed in the samples irradiated at room temperature. At high temperature very small precipitates could be observed. The nature of them was identified by measuring and calculating distances between moire fringes. It is concluded that the precipitate is Cu instead of CuO and that the observed role of the radiation is to favour the precipitation of Cu in the Cu2O matrix