The Zener Relaxation in Silver—Cadmium and Silver—Indium Solid Solutions

Abstract

The Zener relaxation has been studied in a number of alloys of the silver—cadmium and silver—indium systems. The temperature dependence of the relaxation time (τr) for four alloys is described by the equations: The present work on silver—indium alloys suggests that the relaxation is controlled by diffusion of silver at low concentrations of indium, whilst at high indium concentrations the relaxation may be controlled by diffusion of indium. In addition to measurements described by the above equations the relaxation strength, Δm, of Ag3.65 at% indium and Ag18.95 at% indium alloys was measured. The composition dependence of Δm did not obey a c2 (1 − c)2 relation; it is suggested that a change in the rate controlling process of the relaxation at high indium concentrations accounts for this behaviour. For the Ag39 at% cadmium alloy a large difference between the relaxation and diffusion activation energies of either species in the alloy was measured.