NUCLEATION IN A CU-0.8AT-PERCENT-CO ALLOY - POLARIZED NEUTRON-SCATTERING INVESTIGATION AND CLUSTERDYNAMICS DESCRIPTION

By means of polarised small angle neutron scattering it was possible t o investigate the nucleation period in a Cu-0.8at%Co binary alloy at 4 90-degrees-C. The experimental data show excellent agreement with a co mputer simulation based on a recently developed clusterdynamic decompo sition model. From these model calculations the time evolution of the cluster size distribution and thus of important decomposition paramete rs such as nucleation rate and mean radius could be derived. Furthermo re, values for the equilibrium solubility, the interfacial energy and the diffusivity were extracted.