Phase transitions

The microsymposium opened with a description of the combination of quantum mechanical density functional theory and statistical thermodynamics to the study of the fcc-bcc Bain transformation (K. Schwartz, Austria). Other presentations concerned the crystal chemistry, displacive flexibility, and susceptibility to phase transformation of framework structures and compositionally flexible solid solutions (R.Withers, Australia), domain textures associated with ferroelastic phase transformations, the nano-structure of twin boundaries and their effect on physical properties such as ion transport along twin walls (E.Salje, UK), modulated phases of BCCD and the anharmonicity of the associated atomic modulation functions (O. Hernandez, France), and investigations of a high pressure incommensurate to normal structural phase transition in akermanite at ~1.7GPa (R. Angel, Germany).

Ray Withers/Ulrich Bismayer