The Kirkendall effect in the phase field crystal model

Abstract

The Kirkendall effect stems from unequal mobilities of atomic species, which give rise to a net flux of vacancies during interdiffusion in substitutional alloys. In this work, we study a simple binary phase field crystal model to include unequal atomic mobilities and demonstrate that the model captures many phenomena associated with the Kirkendall effect, including the center of mass motion, vacancy supersaturation that can lead to pore formation, and enhanced vacancy concentration near grain boundaries.