Investigation of Cu diffusivity in Fe by a combination of atom probe experiments and kinetic Monte Carlo simulation

In the present study, the diffusion coefficient of Cu in Fe was experimentally estimated from the precipitation kinetics down to 390°C. At this temperature, diffusion couples, which is a typical method to obtain diffusion coefficients, cannot be applied. The matrix Cu concentration and the number density of Cu precipitates in Fe–Cu alloy, which were the main parameters used to estimate the diffusion coefficient, were directly obtained using atom probe tomography. The temperature dependency of the diffusion coefficient of Cu in Fe estimated in the present study was more reliable than that obtained in a previous study, which also reported the diffusion coefficient of Cu in Fe from precipitation kinetics. This indicated that our estimation of the diffusion coefficient of Cu in Fe with atom probe tomography measurements yielded greater accuracy. In addition, the estimated diffusion coefficient of Cu in Fe tended to deviate to higher values from the extrapolated diffusion coefficient of Cu in Fe, which was obtained by diffusion couples, with decreasing temperature. This deviation is discussed by employing a kinetic Monte Carlo simulation.