An effect of antiphase boundaries on the kinetics of short-range ordering by a vacancy mechanism

Abstract

In Monte Carlo simulations of chemical short-range ordering on a square lattice, the number of single-atom domains was found to depend on the presence of antiphase boundaries and on the mechanism by which ordering occurred. When antiphase boundaries were present and the ordering occurred by a vacancy mechanism, the number of single-atom domains was found to increase with decreasing temperature, in contrast to thermodynamic predictions. This is understood as a consequence of highly correlated vacancy motions in those regions of the lattice away from antiphase boundaries.