Reordering kinetics of ion-disordered Ni Al

A study of the reordering kinetics of ion-irradiated Ni₃Al is presented. The development of long-range order during annealing treatments is measured by quantitative electron diffractometry. According to the temperature dependence of the observed kinetics, the reaction is dominated by non-equilibrium vacancies. As a consequence, the kinetics can be calibrated versus the absolute number of atomic jumps necessary to establish the observed degree of order. In order to analyse the experimental data, Monte Carlo simulations are performed. It is shown that, beside the temperature dependence of the driving force, the ordering efficiency of the vacancy jumps itself is temperature dependent due to different mobilities of the atomic species. Received 6 December 1999 and Received in final form 23 June 2000