In many concentrated alloys of current interest, the observation of diffuse superlattice intensities by transmission electron microscopy has been attributed to chemical short-range order. We briefly review these findings and comment on the plausibility of widespread interpretations, noting the absence of expected peaks, conflicts with theoretical predictions, and the possibility of alternative explanations.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division under contract no. DE-AC02-05CH11231 as part of the Damage-Tolerance in Structural Materials (KC13) program. Work at the Molecular Foundry was supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences under the same contract. Resources provided by award no. BES-ERCAP0021088 of the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, a US Department of Energy Office of Science User Facility operated under the same contract, were also used. F.W. additionally thanks Q. Yu for insightful conversations.
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Walsh, F., Zhang, M., Ritchie, R.O. et al. Extra electron reflections in concentrated alloys do not necessitate short-range order. Nat. Mater. 22, 926–929 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-023-01570-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-023-01570-9
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