Application of positron annihilation as a nondestructive method of checking the quality of materials

Methodological features of an investigation of the defect structure of technically important materials by using positron annihilation are discussed. It is shown that the important annihilation parameters characterizing the positron-sensitive defects are the mean positron lifetime τ, the width of the annihilation photon correlation curves (APCC) at half the height Γ and the APCC form parameter f, and the linear Doppler broadening parameter of the annihilation γ-line S.