Irradiation temperature dependence of defect formation of nitrides (A1N and c-BN) during neutron irradiations

The nitrogen vacancy concentration in the more refractory nitrides (A1N and c-BN) is determined as a function of reactor fluence up to 5.2 x 10(17) thermal neutrons/cm(2) and a function of the irradiation temperature at 25, 50, 100, 150, 200, 250 K. It is found that there is no remarkable dependence of the defect formation in nitrides on the irradiation temperature. The production of damage in the nitrides is considerably different from that in oxides. From the irradiation experiments using thermal neutron irradiation field, it is suggested in reactor irradiation that the atomic displacements in the nitrides occur predominately from energetic particles of the nuclear reactions with thermal neutrons in addition to the elastic collisions by fast neutron. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.