The effect of pre-heating on thermal annealing in neutron irradiated tris-acetylacetone Co(III)

The kinetics of isothermal annealing of recoil damage in pre-heated and untreated (normal) samples of tris-acetylacetone Co(III) have been compared. In pre-heated samples, the extent of thermal annealing is found to decrease exponentially with time of pre-heating. The "variable depth electron donor" model for thermal annealing postulates the formation of three types of electron donors. An attempt has been made to determine their contributions towards annealing. It is found that about one-third of the annealing is unaffected by the presence of oxygen and the density of defects, and so can be attributed to the electron donors formed toward the end of the recoil track. The rest of the annealing is controlled by the density of the pre-existing crystal defects since they could be annealed by a prior heat treatment