Comparative Study of Irradiation-induced and Thermally Induced Structural Phase Transitions in Equilibrium Immiscible Fe–Ag Systems

Abstract

In the equilibrium immiscible Fe–Ag systems, unique fcc-structured solid solutions were obtained in their nanosized multilayered films upon ion beam manipulation, indicating that the solid solubility of Fe in Ag can be extended from nearly zero up to 60 at. %. In contrast, an unusual hexagonal (4H) Ag phase was observed in the Fe–Ag multilayered films upon steady-state thermal annealing. We report, in this paper, the detailed structural phase transitions observed in the Fe–Ag multilayered films upon ion irradiation and thermal annealing, together with a brief discussion concerning the significantly different mechanisms involved in the two processes.