Reconstructive phase transitions
Subtitle: in crystals and quasicrystals
By: Pierre Tolédano, Vladimir Dmitriev.
Contributors: Dmitriev, Vladimir.
Publisher: World Scientific
Published: 1996
Place of publication: Singapore; River Edge, NJ
Language: eng
Number of pages: 397
Subjects: Quasicrystals.; Crystals.; Phase transformations (Statistical physics)
Description: This book deals with the phenomenological theory of first-order structural phase transitions, with a special emphasis on reconstructive transformations in which a group-subgroup relationship between the symmetries of the phases is absent. It starts with a unified presentation of the current approach to first-order phase transitions, using the more recent results of the Landau theory of phase transitions and of the theory of singularities.

A general theory of reconstructive phase transitions is then formulated, in which the structures surrounding a transition are expressed in terms of density-waves, providing a natural definition of the transition order-parameters, and a description of the corresponding phase diagrams and relevant physical properties.

The applicability of the theory is illustrated by a large number of concrete examples pertaining to the various classes of reconstructive transitions: allotropic transformations of the elements, displacive and order-disorder tranformations in metals, alloys and related structures, crystal-quasicrystal transformations.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.