Spinodal decomposition of a solid solution under irradiation and void ordering

The objective of this study was to explain experimental observations when nickel was irradiated with selenium atoms. To accomplish this, a mechanism which relates the appearance of a lattice of voids to the development of a new type of instability in a system of point defects was proposed. It was shown that the instability of a system of vacancies can arise as a result of spinodal decomposition. It was also shown that there was a threshold for this effect, and the threshold irradiation dose was calculated as were the increments and wave vectors of the instability. Good agreement with experiment was obtained.