Crystallite-conjugation regions and adjacent lattice regions in polycrystalline iridium: II. Composition and properties of cores of crystallite-conjugation regions in polycrystalline iridium during annealing in an ultrahigh vacuum

Composition and properties of cores of crystallite-conjugation regions (CCRs) formed during annealing of polycrystalline iridium (poly-Ir) in an ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) have been studied using the method of intercrystalline diffusion in combination with Mössbauer spectroscopy (ID+MS) that has been developed in our previous works. Upon annealing in a UHV, poly-Ir is doped with oxygen from the atmosphere of the vacuum chamber. Complexes containing two vacancies per oxygen atom are formed in the CCR cores of poly-Ir because of a rearrangement of the atomic structure of the CCR cores upon their doping with oxygen. Using the ID+MS method, we for the first time revealed a “compensated” state of CCR cores in poly-Ir samples annealed in a UHV and of CCR cores in poly-Cr annealed in technical vacuum. The cause of the appearance of “compensated” states in CCR cores is the mutual compensation of relaxation volumes with opposite signs characteristic of different point defects. The relaxation volume of an oxygen atom in the CCR core of poly-Ir is by an order of magnitude greater than that in poly-Cr.