Visualization of the Vacancy-Wind Effect Occurring in Chemical Diffusion and Ionic Conductivity in Solids

Abstract

Net fluxes of vacancies commonly occur during chemical interdiffusion in alloys, ionic conductivity and the annealing out of radiation damage. When atoms with different jump rates diffuse in a net flux of vacancies the phenomenon of the vacancy-wind effect will occur. This effect, first discovered by the late Dr John Manning, is a subtle phenomenon arising from a disturbed distribution of vacancies with respect to a given moving atom or species of atom. In this paper, the vacancy-wind effect is discussed and its visualization, performed for the first time by computer simulation, is demonstrated.