Relaxation Method for Studying Vacancies in Solids

A method is described for studying vacanices in solids that is based on determining the dependence of the approach of vacancy concentration to equilibrium in a specimen subjected to a periodic temperature variation. The approach to equilibrium is determined by comparing the instantaneous response of electrical resistivity to the periodic temperature variation. It is shown that quantitative determination may be made of vacancy migration energy, of vacancy formation energy, and of source and sink spacing. Numerical calculations are carried out for gold.