Discovering that both the vacancy and interstitial defect migration pathways are confined to Ga-free regions suggests changes in recombination rates of isolated vacancy-interstitial pairs in comparison to pure Pu. The degree to which the rates are effected depends on the distribution of residual defects post a cascade event, in addition to the concentration and ordering of the Ga atoms. If vacancies and interstitials become greatly separated after the collision cascade, then pathways to recombination are likely to become restricted and recovery times will be extended. This is viable for cascades that created a vacancy rich core surrounded by dispersed interstitials, as found for the low energy cascades in Pu and PuGa [11,12]. This may also be the case for channelling events, where energetic atoms travel deep into the lattice through channels of low atomic density.
