A review was presented of the properties of vacancies in the high-purity α-phase. It was shown that self-diffusion occurred here via a vacancy mechanism and that the sum of the monovacancy formation and migration enthalpies in the magnetically fully-ordered state was 2.91eV. The monovacancy formation enthalpy was between 1.61 and 1.75eV. The estimate for the monovacancy migration energy (1.23eV) definitely ruled out any attribution of stage-III recovery to vacancy migration, and suggested that the stage-III defect was a self-interstitial. Positrons which were trapped in vacancies in the body-centered cubic phase could escape at high temperatures. The binding energy of positrons and vacancies was estimated to be about 1.1eV, and this value agreed with predictions of the high-temperature trapping of positive muons by vacancies. The latter process was the most sensitive technique for detecting thermally equilibrated vacancies in this material.

Lattice Vacancies in High-Purity α-Iron. A.Seeger: Physica Status Solidi A, 1998, 167[2], 289-311