The effect of lattice relaxation, at vacancy clusters and interstitial-type dislocation loops, upon the positron lifetime was studied. Defective relaxed structures were generated by using a many-body potential for Zn. It was deduced from the results that the effect of atomic relaxation was significant mainly in the case of small vacancy clusters (monovacancies, divacancies, type-a trivacancies). The lifetime which was associated with interstitial-type loops was very sensitive to the loop structure and its surroundings, and was increased by the presence of vacancies in the loop neighbourhood. A comparison of the theoretical calculations and experimental results confirmed that 3-dimensional vacancy clusters were absent from electron-irradiated Zn.

Positron Lifetime Calculations for Defects in Zn. J.M.Campillo, F.Plazaola, N.De Diego: Journal of Physics - Condensed Matter, 2000, 12[46], 9715-23