Mechanism for the α →ε phase transition in iron
Abstract
The mechanism of the α-ε transition in iron is reconsidered. A path in the Burgers description of the bcc/hcp transition, different from those previously considered, is proposed. It relies on the assumption that shear and shuffle are decoupled and require some peculiar magnetic order, different from that of α and ε phases as found in density-functional theory. Finally,we put forward an original mechanism for this transition, based on the successive shuffle motion of layers, which is akin to a nucleation-propagation process rather than to some uniform motion.
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