Hydrogen-induced crystal to glass transformation in Zr3Al

Abstract

The process of hydrogen-induced amorphization of the equilibrium intermetallic compound Zr3Al is compared to ion-irradiation-induced amorphization of the same compound. In contrast to ion irradiation, where almost complete chemical disordering precedes the onset of amorphization, hydrogenation of Zr3Al causes no appreciable change in long-range order prior to amorphization. Electron microscopy reveals apparent homogeneous nucleation of the amorphous phase, and striking similarities to martensitic microstructures. The maximum lattice dilation observed prior to amorphization by hydrogen absorption is identical to that found during irradiation, indicating that lattice expansion is a common measure of the crystal instability induced by different solid-state processing techniques.