Annealing of radiation defects in X-irradiated LiBaF₃

Results of application of the glow rate technique GRT for analysis of the activation energy of thermostimulated annealing of X-ray created F-type color centers in LiBaF₃ crystals, pure and containing hetero-valence oxygen centers are presented. It is shown that depending on impurity composition in crystal two alternative mechanisms are involved in annealing of color centers. It is proposed that either the anion vacancy governed migration of F-centers resulting in recombination with complementary defects, or the thermal delocalization of radiation created fluorine (F_i) interstitials captured by anti-structure defects followed by recombination with all kinds of complementary F-type centers are responsible for the recombination of radiation defects above RT.