By well-established theoretical means, it is now possible to calculate thermodynamic properties of elemental crystals and liquids to an accuracy matching that of available low-pressure experiments; it is also known that the neglect of anharmonicity and electron-phonon interactions introduces errors smaller than 5% at low pressures. To check this theoretical framework and the validity of these a...

Introduction An understanding of the crystallization kinetics of magnetic amorphous alloys is of scientific interest for two important reasons. First, for an alloy that exhibits excellent magnetic properties in its amorphous phase, the crystallization kinetics represent the limit at which these properties begin to deteriorate. Therefore, thermal stability determines the magnetic stability of th...

The Cahn-Hilliard equation is very important in materials science. It is a conservation law which describes important qualitative behaviors of two-phase systems, namely, the phase separation process in a binary alloy. This phenomenon can be observed, for instance, when the alloy is cooled down sufficiently. One then observes a partial nucleation (i.e., the apparition of nucleides in the materia...

Zn4Sb3 is shown to be entropically stabilized versus decomposition to Zn and ZnSb through the effects of configurational disorder and phonon free energy. Single-phase stability is predicted for a range of compositions and temperatures. Retrograde solubility of Zn is predicted on the two-phase boundary region between Zn4Sb3 and Zn. The complex temperature-dependent solubility can be used to expl...