Engel-Brewer model

In the course of the past decade several explanations have been put forward to account for the anomalous diffusion in bcc metals. The different models based on the presence of extrinsic vacancies (Kidson, 1963), on the temperature dependence of elastic constants (Aaronson and Shewmon, 1967), on dislocation enhanced diffusion (Peart and Askill, 1967) or on vacancy anharmonicity (Gilder and Lazarus, 1975) have been thoroughly discussed in the original and in the various review papers. Two additional models, the activated interstitial and, more recently, the w-embryo model, have been proposed as alternative explanations for anomalous bcc diffusion. These two models and their possible common interpretation on the basis of the Engel-Brewer electron correlation theory will be discussed in the next sub-section. 

The CD-embryo model and the Engel-Brewer correlation theory... 

However, on the basis of calculations of lattice stabilities from spectroscopic data. Brewer (1967, 1979) has consistently maintained that interaction coefficients can change drastically with composition, and that extrapolated lattice stabilities obtained with simple models should therefore be considered as only effective values. While this may indeed be true when mechanical instability occurs, many of the assumptions which underlie Brewer s methodology are questionable. A core principle of the spectroscopic approach is the derivation of promotion energies which require the definition of both ground and excited levels. Assumptions concerning the relevant excited state have always been strongly coloured by adherence to the empirical views of Engel (1964) and Brewer (1967). By definition, the choice... 

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