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Updated: Jan 7, 2026

Methods of Ex Situ and In Situ Investigations of Structural Transformations: The Case of Crystallization of Metallic Glasses
Published on: June 7, 2018
Pressure-temperature route from disordered BCC to a 2 × 2 × 2 B2 superstructure
Raimundas Sereika1, Andrew D Pope2, Caleb M Knight2
1Department of Physics, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, 35294, USA. rsereika@uab.edu.
Abstract:
The interplay between configurational entropy and the enthalpy of ordered structures governs phase stability in compositionally complex alloys. In the refractory alloy Re0.6(NbTiZrHf)0.4, this balance is particularly delicate: pressure stabilizes a disordered body-centred-cubic (bcc) solid solution over the ambient hexagonal Laves phase via a martensitic route. Using in situ laser heating with synchrotron X-ray diffraction in a diamond-anvil cell, we demonstrate that the metastable bcc phase can be controllably transformed into a large-scale 2 × 2 × 2 B2-type superstructure with primitive-cubic symmetry ([Formula: see text]). This long-period ordered phase is crystallographically distinct from conventional B2 ordering in multicomponent alloys, establishing a pathway to achieve chemical ordering from pressure-stabilized solid solutions. More broadly, these findings demonstrate that combining compression with subsequent thermal activation can unlock recoverable three-dimensional superstructures, offering new opportunities to tailor strength, transport properties, and stability in compositionally complex alloys.
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