Creation of Defect Phase Diagrams for Ordered Laves Phases

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The goal of this proposal is to establish a first collaboration between the team of Prof. Sandra Korte-Kerzel at RWTH Aachen and Prof. Chad Sinclair at The University of British Columbia (UBC) in the area of 'defect phase diagrams'. Phase diagrams are one of the most important tools to materials scientists and engineers, helping to guide the proper choice of material chemistry and processing conditions to attain desired properties. Classically, such diagrams are ignorant of the presence of defects (e.g. dislocations, grain boundaries, surfaces) that are ubiquitous in all engineering materials. For crystalline materials such defects break the crystal symmetry and therefore can have a distinct behaviour compared to what would be predicted for the bulk crystal. If the distinct behaviour of defects can be harnessed it can be used to better tune material properties for a wide range of applications. This work will combine the expertise of the two research teams, the experimental expertise at RWTH Aachen with the computational tools being developed and deployed at UBC. The aim will be to develop defect phase diagrams for a particular form of ordered laves phase currently under intense study at RWTH Aachen.