Lattice properties of supersaturated Ni-Sn solid solutions

Abstract Supersaturated Ni-Sn solid solutions with Sn solubility up to 9.2 at% have been obtained through rapid solidification in the undercooling range of 220-280 K. The lattice properties including the lattice constant, microscopic lattice distortion, thermal expansion and linear expansion coefficient are investigated experimentally and theoretically. The lattice constants increase about 0.01 Å per 1 at% Sn in linear way. The lattice distortions are mainly confined to the first nearest-neighbor atoms with the values of (3.5±0.3)%, and are less than 1% for farther atoms. The thermal expansions vary only a little with Sn content and exhibit obvious increase for the as-cast solid solutions above 1150 K due to the phase transformation of Ni₃Sn compound, whereas they increase smoothly with temperature for the annealed supersaturated samples.