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The Effect of Spatial Correlations on the Steady State Nucleation ofVoids

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Radiation Effects

Volume

36

Issue

3-4

Publication Date

1978

First Page

197

Last Page

203

Abstract

A commonly invoked procedure for calculating steady state nucleation rates employs a chemical kinetics argument in which the rate constants are assumed to be the same as in a so-called “constrained” equilibrium state of the system of interest. Such a procedure implicitly ignores the possibility that in some nonequilibrium nucleation processes spatial correlations among the reactants can cause the relevant rate constants to be different from their equilibrium values. Void nucleation is an example of a situation in which this phenomenon occurs. We show how to modify the usual theory to account for the local depletion of vacancies in the vicinity of a forming void. A numerical example illustrates the conclusion that the local depletion effect produces nucleation rates which can be very much smaller than those predicted by models in which there is complete spatial uniformity.

Comments

Published by Taylor and Francis in Radiation Effects. Publisher PDF is available through link above. Publisher requires subscription to access article.

https://doi.org/10.1080/00337577808240848

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