The search for interstitial dislocation loops produced in displacement cascades at 20 K in copper

Abstract A low-temperature in situ ion-irradiation and annealing experiment has been performed by TEM in copper. Most defect clusters which persisted through an anneal to 120 K showed no size changes within the resolution (0.5 nm) of a new weak-beam sizing technique. Of 55 defects measured under a range of weakly diffracting conditions, 7 showed measurable size decreases while 3 showed size increases. We argue that these clusters are likely to be of vacancy and interstitial nature, respectively. Also on annealing to 120 K a fraction of about 25% of the clusters formed by irradiation with 600 kV Cu⁺ ions at 20 K disappeared, while a similar number of clusters appeared in different locations.