Intermetallic phase stability on high energy treatments (rapid quenching, ion irradiation and mechanical milling)

Abstract

The stability of transition metal intermetallics belonging to the Frank–Kasper (FK) phase family and to the spherically close-packed (SCP) phases subjected to rapid quenching (RQ), ion irradiation (II) and mechanical milling (MM) has been studied. It was found that the transition into the amorphous state (AS) is independent of the treatment and only depends on the crystal structure. The phases with the least stability on all treatments studied here are the Frank–Kasper type intermetallics. The phases that are amorphized most readily are those in which the fraction of atoms with icosahedral coordination (IC) exceeds 1/3 and the short-range order (SRO) in the crystalline compound is similar to that of the amorphous phase (AP). Amorphization in SCP-based intermetallics is hampered; it becomes easier on increasing the atomic size difference. The treatment technologies studied here may be ranged from “hard” to “soft” in the following order: MM→II→RQ.