It is shown that in two‐component ordered crystals in which the requirement of the stoichiometry maintenance allows to create vacancies in pairs in both sublattices, point defect equilibrium concentrations and their establishment processes essentially differ from those in one‐component or disordered crystals. The system of equations describing the vacancy diffusion kinetics is obtained, and the equilibrium establishment process is analyzed in two cases ‐ for freshly cleaved surface and for a step‐wise temperature change. It is shown that for the conservation of ordering, point defects in different sublattices should redistribute in a self‐consistent manner. Characteristic times of the equilibrium establishment processes are defined, and approximate asymptotic time dependences of surface and volume vacancy concentrations are obtained.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.