Thermal equilibrium defects in iron-based alloys

The Mössbauer spectra of ⁵⁷Fe were measured for the thermal equilibrium b.c.c. Fe_0.947V_0.053 and Fe_0.956Co_0.044 solid solutions being at temperature ranging from 300 to 1,000 K. The obtained data were analysed in terms of concentration of unoccupied sites in the 14-site surroundings of an ⁵⁷Fe Mössbauer probe in a b.c.c. sample. It turned out that the probe detects unoccupied sites in its neighbourhood when the temperature of the material studied does not exceed about 900 K. This result suggests that the Mössbauer spectroscopy “sees” the pre-vacancy effect revealed by the positron annihilation spectroscopy in the early 1960s.