Temperature dependency of radiation damage in inorganic materials by 300 keV electrons.

Temperature dependency of radiation damage in albite and natrolite was studied quantitatively by measuring the diffraction intensity with imaging plates. Radiation damage was reduced at low temperature in albite but was enhanced in natrolite. A damage process model, in which creation and annihilation of localized defects were considered, was proposed. According to this model, Boltzmann factor in temperature dependency is dominated by a difference between energy for diffusion of the localized defects and energy for breakdown of a crystal framework. When the diffusion energy is larger than breakdown energy, the activation energy in Boltzmann factor seems to be effectively negative.