Magnetoplastic effect in irradiated NaCl and LiF crystals

The effect of low x-ray irradiation doses (approximate to 10(2) rad) on the magnetoplastic effect - the detachment of dislocations from paramagnetic centers under the action of an external magnetic field B - in alkali-halide crystals has been investigated. The measurements were performed on LiF crystals and three types of NaCl crystals, differing in impurity content. The dependence of the mean free path I of the dislocations on the rotational frequency nu of a sample in a magnetic field was especially sensitive to low irradiation doses. In unirradiated crystals this dependence is a single-step dependence and is characterized by a critical frequency nu(c) proportional to B-2 above which the magnetoplastic effect is not observed. The frequency nu(c) depends only on the type of paramagnetic centers, and not on their density. Even the lowest irradiation dose employed (<100 rad) leads to a sharp restructuring of the dependence I(nu), converting it into a two-step dependence (for edge dislocations) with an additional critical frequency nu(c2), that is insensitive to the irradiation dose, and that corresponds to the appearance of magnetically sensitive stoppers of a new type under irradiation. The initial critical frequency nu(c1), as a rule, also varies with the dose, reflecting the change in state of the impurity complexes (Ca in NaCl and Mg in LiF). Specifically, it is shown for NaCl(Ca) crystals that as the irradiation dose increases, the frequency nu(c1) increases, gradually approaching the value nu(c2), SO that by the time the dose is approximate to 300 rad, the dependence l(nu) once again becomes a single-step dependence, dropping sharply only for nu greater than or equal to nu(c2). It is shown that the addition of a small number of Ni atoms to a NaCl crystal makes the Ca complexes radiation resistant, and the critical frequency nu(c1) corresponding to them initially equals nu(c2) for crystals with no Ni. The recombination kinetics of radiation defects in the case in which the samples are irradiated under a tungsten lamp was investigated. A possible physical model of the observed dependences is discussed. (C) 1997 American Institute of Physics.