An anomalous behavior of such halides, in that they emitted more thermal energy than the light energy that was absorbed at liquid He temperatures, was studied in the present photo-sensitive materials. This heat generation, which had already been explained in terms of the consecutive recombination of interstitial Ag ions and vacancies - mediated by electrons in the conduction band - was analyzed by taking account of the trapping of conduction electrons by dislocations. However, it was shown that estimations of the released energy per unit volume led to unrealistically high room-temperature densities of interstitial-vacancy pairs and/or dislocations.

Y.Kondo, N.Sakaida: Materials Science Forum, 1997, 239-241, 167-70