Vacancy depth profiles

Positrons can be used as particle probes, suitable to detect low concentrations of defects in materials. Positron physicists generally are in need of intense positron beams for applying positron annihilation techniques such as two dimensional (2D) Angular Correlation of Annihilation Radiation (ACAR) for investigating surfaces and interfaces of materials. The 2D-ACAR technique allows high resolution measurements of the electron momentum distribution for depth, localized defects, thin layer systems, and interfaces. In addition, a submicrometer size positron beam can be created for defect depth profiling on a lateral scale smaller than a micrometer. Vacancy type defects can be mapped in a three dimensional fashion. 

There is a striking similarity between the experimentally observed and the theoretically calculated profiles, and all four characteristic features occur in both. The calculated location of the minimum, which mainly depends on the vacancy mobility, is close to the location observed in the experiment. The computed temperature dependence of the depth of the minimum corresponds with the results of the measurement. Obviously, the stoichiometry polarization model of resistance degradation correctly predicts the conductivity variations. In particular the almost quantitative agreement of the very characteristic shape of the conductivity distribution proves the validity of the existing model described above. It should be noted that in the calculations only the hole mobility is chosen such that the theoretically and the experimentally observed depth of the minimum is similar, but all other parameters used in the simulation are taken from literature [77, 336, 338],... 

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