Ultrasonic detection of the pinning of dislocations by point defects in lead-I determination of migration energies

The ultrasonic attenuation of a γ-irradiated, deformed, single-crystal of lead has been measured between 77 and 270 K. Constant heating rate and isothermal anneals after low temperature irradiation yielded two dislocation pinning stages centered at 140 and 200 K and two dislocation depinning stages centered about 170 and 250 K. For an unirradiated sample one pinning stage centered at 170 and one depinning stage centered at 250 K were observed. Activation energies were calculated from isothermal anneals using an eigenfunction expansion model to be 0·16±0·04 and 0·36±0·05 eV for the pinning stages in the irradiated crystal and 0·28±0·05 eV for the pinning stage in the unirradiated crystal. The activation energy calculated from the same isothermal anneals using a Cottrell-Bilby analysis was 0·23±0·03 eV for the low temperature pinning stage in the irradiated crystal. The other activation energies were not changed. The discrepancy is discussed in Part II.