Tracer diffusion study in binary alloys

The diffusional properties of dilute alloys are quite well described with 5 vacancy jump frequencies: the diffusion experiments allow as to determine only 3 jump frequency ratios. The first experiment set, found by Howard and Manning, was used in order to determine the 3 frequency ratios in the dilute Cu-Fe alloy. N.V. Doan has shown that the isotope effect measurements may be replaced by easier electromigration experiments: this new method was used with success for the dilute Ag-Zn and Ag-Cd alloys. Two effects which take place in less dilute alloys cannot be explained with the 5 frequency model, these are: the linear enhancement of solute diffusion and the departure from linear enhancement of solvent diffusion versus solute concentration. To explain these effects, we have had to take account of the influence of solute pairs on diffusion via 53 new vacancy jump frequencies. Diffusion in a concentrated alloy can be described with a quasi-chemical approach: we show that a description with 'surrounded atoms' allows the simultaneous explanation of the thermodynamical properties of the binary solid solution, the dependence of atomic jump frequencies with respect to the local concentration of the alloy. In this model, the two atomic species have a jump frequency spectrum at their disposal, which seems to greatly modify Manning's correlation analysis. (author)