Arakawa, K, Marinica, M-C, Fitzgerald, S orcid.org/0000-0003-2865-3057 et al. (15 more authors) (2020) Quantum de-trapping and transport of heavy defects in tungsten. Nature Materials, 19. pp. 508-511. ISSN 1476-1122
Abstract
The diffusion of defects in crystalline materials1 controls macroscopic behaviour of a wide range of processes, including alloying, precipitation, phase transformation and creep2. In real materials, intrinsic defects are unavoidably bound to static trapping centres such as impurity atoms, meaning that their diffusion is dominated by de-trapping processes. It is generally believed that de-trapping occurs only by thermal activation. Here, we report the direct observation of the quantum de-trapping of defects below around one-third of the Debye temperature. We successfully monitored the de-trapping and migration of self-interstitial atom clusters, strongly trapped by impurity atoms in tungsten, by triggering de-trapping out of equilibrium at cryogenic temperatures, using high-energy electron irradiation and in situ transmission electron microscopy. The quantum-assisted de-trapping leads to low-temperature diffusion rates orders of magnitude higher than a naive classical estimate suggests. Our analysis shows that this phenomenon is generic to any crystalline material.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2020, Springer Nature. This is an author produced version of a paper published in Nature Materials. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Mathematics (Leeds) > Applied Mathematics (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) EP/R005974/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 05 Dec 2019 12:27 |
Last Modified: | 18 Dec 2020 13:55 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Nature Research |
Identification Number: | 10.1038/s41563-019-0584-0 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:154209 |