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 A 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 Ni 3 Sn compound, whereas they increase smoothly with temperature for the annealed supersaturated samples.