A preliminary field‐ion atom‐probe investigation of competitive carbide formation in ferritic steels

Abstract

SUMMARY A combined field‐ion microscope and field‐ion atom‐probe study has been made of the early stages of precipitation in an Fe—V—Mo—C alloy. Crystallo‐graphic analysis showed that precipitates based on both molybdenum and vanadium carbide structures were present. Atom probe analysis showed that individual carbides ∼15 nm in size contained both molybdenum and vanadium, while for smaller sizes a considerable amount of iron was present in the precipitates.