The annealing of quenched-in vacancies in dilute aluminium alloys

Abstract

The effects of small concentrations of silver, copper, magnesium and indium on the annealing of quenched-in vacancies in zone-refined aluminium have been studied by using electrical-resistivity measurements. All the solutes were found to retard annealing and the presence of indium introduced an additional stage in the recovery process. It is concluded that the binding energy between a vacancy and a solute atom increases in the order silver, copper, magnesium, indium.