Development of fluctuations into domains during ordering in Fe3Al

Abstract

The early-stage kinetics of a second-order phase transition with a nonconserved order parameter (the B2-DO3 transition in Fe3Al) has been investigated using in situ synchrotron x-ray scattering. A line-shape analysis allows the short- and long-range-order components to be determined separately as a function of time during the ordering process. At all temperatures investigated, the correlation length of short-range-order fluctuations t) grows to a maximum and then decreases, while the long-range-order domain size L(t) increases monotonically from an initial value 1 order of magnitude larger than. © 1992 The American Physical Society.