A study was made of the diffusion-controlled annealing of the most mobile radiation-induced defects, I centers, in crystals. The annealing kinetics of pairs of close oppositely charged defects, -I centers, which arose as a result of the tunnelling recombination of primary Frenkel defects (F and H centers), and of F-I centers (when an H center trapped electrons) were calculated. Account was taken of defect diffusion and Coulomb/elastic interactions. Particular attention was paid to the conditions under which multi-stage annealing occurred.

A.I.Popov, E.A.Kotomin, R.I.Eglitis: Radiation Effects and Defects in Solids, 1995, 134, 83-6