Some New Results on Irradiation Characteristics of Synthetic Quartz Crystals and Their Application to Radiation Hardening

Abstract

The paper reports some new results on irradiation characteristics of synthetic quartz crystals and their application to radiation hardening. The present results show how the frequency shift in quartz crystals can be influenced by heat processing prior to irradiation and how this procedure can lead to radiation hardening for obtaining precise frequencies and time intervals from quartz oscillators in space. In line with the thinking already proposed (H. Bahadur and R. Parshad, Proc. 12th PTTI Conference, pp.829-849, 1980) for explaining some of the irradiation characteristics of natural crystals, for the present work, it was assumed that the positive frequency shift in irradiated synthetic crystals is due to crystal imperfections. The crystal imperfections in synthetic crystals were sought to be removed by appropriate annealing (slow heating to 240 deg C followed by slow cooling). Different annealed crystals on irradiation gave either a negative frequency shift, thus simulating the behavior of natural crystals or almost a zero frequency shift. This result would be due to the positive frequency contribution of remnant crystal defects matching the negative frequency contribution of the A-centers of the crystal lattice.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 01, 1982
Accession Number
ADA497342

Entities

People

  • Harish Bahadur
  • R. Parshad

Organizations

  • National Physical Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Abstracts
  • Annealing
  • Crystal Defects
  • Crystal Lattices
  • Crystals
  • Electronics
  • Frequency
  • Frequency Shift
  • Frequency Standards
  • Hardening
  • Intervals
  • Radiation
  • Radiation Effects
  • Radiation Hardening
  • Resonators
  • Standards
  • Time Intervals

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Materials Science and Engineering.
  • Nuclear and Radiation Engineering.
  • Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) Technology.

Technology Areas

  • Space