Decoupled growth mechanism of Fe₄₀Ni₄₀P ₁₄B₆ eutectic alloy

Decoupled growth often occurs in the nonfacetted-facetted eutectic systems. And it is generally considered that the nonfacetted solid solution acts as the leading phase in the decoupled growth. In this work, Fe40Ni40P14B6 eutectic alloys were systematically studied via solidification of undercooled melts and crystallization of amorphous alloys. Upon solidification of melts subjected to different undercoolings, as the undercooling increases, the growth mechanism develops from cooperative growth to decoupled growth. Upon crystallization of amorphous alloys, the partially crystallized sample consists only of strongly faulted intermetallic (Fe,Ni)3(P,B) with chemical composition deviating from stoichiometry. Formation of supersaturated solid solution γ(Fe, Ni) in the solidification and supersaturated intermetallic (Fe,Ni)3(P,B) in the amorphous crystallization indicates that decoupled growth results from solute trapping and disorder trapping in rapid growth of solid solution and intermetallic, respectively. Further application of rapidly quenched experiments and theoretical analysis declare that the decoupled growth results from a competition between the growth of γ(Fe, Ni) and (Fe,Ni)3(P,B), which are controlled by solute trapping and disorder trapping, respectively.