[en] Applied and basic research on the irradiation-induced defects on metals and alloys has attracted the attention of many researches and the number of published articles is large (1-4). In copper can be distinguished two main temperature ranges to produce characteristic interstitial and vacancies (Frenkel pairs). When electron irradiation is carried out at the low temperature range (≤ 300 K) Frenkel pairs are created where vacancies are immobile and the interstitial are mobile, forming interstitial clusters. However, when electron irradiation is carried out at the high temperature range (≥ 350 K) interstitial and vacancies are both mobile (1,2,5). In this latter case the vacancy interstitial mutual annihilation becomes effective due to their high mobility, but other stable defects may be produced. It is also well known that by mechanical polishing, electrochemical polishing, sputtering, radiation damage, annealing among others, the surface of metal specimens may be modified. Several techniques have been used to follow the polishing and irradiation-induced damage in copper and other metals and alloys. Positron annihilation spectroscopy (PAS), High voltage electron microscopy (HVEM), Resistivity as a function of fluence, X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements are among others used to these purposes. Particularly, PAS is one of these techniques that is only sensitive to free volume vacancies, being of paramount importance in studies of point defects. Within this area, preliminary PAS and XRD results on the characterization of the electron irradiation-induced defects and the polishing induced deformation on copper are presented. (Author)