Abstract:
Establishment times of vacancy equilibrium $t^*$ in spherical samples of simple crystals of radius $R$ due to thermal motion of atoms during the process maximally approached to the equilibrium upon lowering the temperature from the melting point to the current value $T$ have been calculated. It has been found that (i) with a decrease in $T$, the equilibrium time $t^*$ exponentially increases, and (ii) with a decrease in the sample radius $R$, the time $t^*$ exponentially decreases. The general tendency toward increase in the time $t^*$ due to lowering the temperature overlaps the effect of decreasing sample size $R$; therefore, for any small samples, the temperature range $T<T^*$, for which the diffusion process is almost frozen, always exists.
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