| Title: |
Defect investigations of micron sized precipitates in Al alloys |
| Author(s): |
B. Klobes  , B. Korff , O. Balarisi , P. Eich , M. Haaks , I. Kohlbach , K. Maier , R. Sottong and T. E. M. Staab |
| Journal: |
Journal of Physics: Conference Series |
| Year: |
2011 |
| Volume: |
262 |
| Issue: |
1 |
| Pages: |
012030 |
| File URL: |
http://stacks.iop.org/1742-6596/262/i=1/a=012030 |
| Abstract: |
A lot of light aluminium alloys achieve their favourable mechanical properties, especially their high strength, due to precipitation of alloying elements. This class of age hardenable Al alloys includes technologically important systems such as e.g. Al-Mg-Si or Al-Cu. During ageing different precipitates are formed according to a specific precipitation sequence, which is always directed onto the corresponding intermetallic equilibrium phase. Probing the defect state of individual precipitates requires high spatial resolution as well as high chemical sensitivity. Both can be achieved using the finely focused positron beam provided by the Bonn Positron Microprobe (BPM) [1] in combination with the High Momentum Analysis (HMA) [2]. Employing the BPM, structures in the micron range can be probed by means of the spectroscopy of the Doppler broadening of annihilation radiation (DBAR). On the basis of these prerequisites single precipitates of intermetallic phases in Al-Mg-Si and Al-Cu, i.e. Mg 2 Si and Al 2 Cu, were probed. A detailed interpretation of these measurements necessarily relies on theoretical calculations of the DBAR of possible annihilation sites. These were performed employing the DOPPLER program. However, previous to the DBAR calculation the structures, which partly contain vacancies, were relaxed using the ab-initio code SIESTA, i.e. the atomic positions in presence of a vacancy were recalculated. |
