The effect of neutron irradiation on electrical resistance of antimony and its alloys

The effect of neutron irradiation integral dose 1.3x1020 neutron/cm2 (E < 0.04 eV) and 5.2x1018 neutron/cm2 (E > 2.6 MeV) on specific electric resistance of antimony and its alloys with bismuth, tellurium and lead was investigated. The samples of antimony and its alloys were irradiated in vertical channels of the IRT-M reactor.The time of exposure amounted to 9.000 hours. To separate the contribution of different types of defects into the change of electric resistance, the part of the pure antimony samples was affected by plastic deformation before irradiation and then by annealing during. 1 hour under 150 deg C. The mechanism of experimentally observed change of specific electric resistance was established taking account of both nuclear reactions on antimony of radiative capture type followed by #betta#-decay and the processes leading to development of crystal lattice defects. It was concluded that radiation alloying by tellurium is the main mechanism of neutron irradiation influence on antimony and its alloys