Increase of the Electrical Resistance of Thin Copper Film Due to 14 MeV Neutron Irradiation

The variation in the electrical resistance of thin copper film (500 Å thick), grown on the glass slide has been measured with Increasing 14 MeV neutron Irradiation time. The electrical resistance vs irradiation time curveshows an Interesting behaviour after an irradiation of 40 minutes. However, there is a net increase in the electrical resistance with increasing neutron dose. The maximum increase in the observed electrical resistance after an irradiation of 115 mins, is 4.45%. The microstructural studies of irradiated film were made using TEM & TED techniques. The TEM patterns upto an irradiation time of 1.00 hr do not show any appreciable change in the microstructure. The TED patterns also do not show any appreciable change in the diffraction pattern upto an irradiation time of 1.0 hr. But after an irradiation time of 1.5 hrs, two extra rings appear In the TED pattern which disappear with increasing neutron irradiation time.