A study of vacancy defects related to gray tracks in KTiOPO4 (KTP) using positron annihilation

For the first time to our knowledge, positron annihilation spectroscopy (PAS) was used to study vacancy defects in KTiOPO4 (KTP) single crystals. Positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy combined with dielectric measurements identified the existence of oxygen vacancies and reflected the concentration of vacancy defects in three samples. The vacancy defects in KTP do not consist of monovacancies, but rather vacancy complexes. Doppler broadening indicates that the vacancy defects are distributed uniformly. A relationship is established where a crystal with a low oxygen vacancy concentration and a highly balanced stoichiometry has a higher resistance to gray track formation.