Fault energies in ordered and disordered Ni3Fe

Abstract

Abstract The weak-beam method of electron microscopy has been used to study the dissociation and the fault energies in disordered and ordered Ni3Fe. For the ordered structure this is of particular interest since in this case the plastic behaviour is determined by the dissociation mode of the superlattice dislocations. Single crystals of Ni3Fe were quenched to suppress the formation of the long-range ordered phase and strained at room temperature. From the dissociation of the Shockley partials the stacking fault energy of the disordered f.c.c. phase γ = 95 ± 14 mJ m −2 was deduced. A section of the disordered and deformed crystal was subsequently fully ordered (Ll2 superlattice structure) and additionally deformed. The complex stacking fault energy γcsF = 123 ± 13 mJ m −2 was deduced from dissociated unit dislocations which were sessile since they had been introduced before ordering. The deformation of the ordered crystal proceeds by the formation of superlattice dislocations. These dislocations show a fou...