Dynamics of phase separation in metallic systems

Abstract

Various aspects of the time evolution of metallic solid solutions quenched under a miscibility gap and evolving towards equilibrium are considered. After a survey of the various theories describing the phase separation, the informations given by the experiments are described. The experimental results are discussed in terms of patterns and morphologies of the microstructures and of various kinetics regimes occurring at different quench depths: nucleation-growth of heterophase fluctuations, coarsening of well defined second phase particles, homophase fluctuations or spinodal decomposition, interconnected microstructure. Multicomponent alloys are finally considered.