Movement of gas-filled cavities in alkalihalide crystals produced by external force fields

The migration of gas-filled cavities in KBr, NaCl, LiF single-crystals is investigated experimentally in an electric field and a temperature gradient.It is shown, that migration in an electric field is strongly dependent on the surface purity, due to its influence on matter transport along cavity surface. It is found that the velocity of cavity (v), having a ‘dirty’ surface follows a V～1/R dependence. (R—cavity size). In case of a ‘pure’ cavity surface. V is independent of R. Different types of V-vs-R dependence result in intermediate regions.Migration in a temperature gradient is also sensitive to surface purity. When the state of surface purity is determined, an appropriate critical size (R^*) exists such that if R is smaller than R^*, V～R and if R is larger than R^*, V is independent of R.Some constants of investigated process are determined from obtained experimental data.