Phase and Microstructural Stability in Immiscible Binary Alloys Under Irradiation

Abstract

In the experimental part, we investigate the microstructures resulting under ion-beam mixing in Ag-Cu multilayers. We find that, regardless of the irradiation temperature, extensive grain growth takes place. In the regime when thermal decomposition is in dynamic balance with irradiation mixing, phase separation takes place at a finite-length scale, of the order of the nanometer, in agreement with our theoretical predictions. This spontaneous nanoscale decomposition demonstrates that ion-beam mixing can be used as a processing tool for the synthesis of nanocomposite materials.