The deformation microstructure of austenitic Fe-18Cr-(10-12)Ni (wt pct) alloys with low stacking fault energies, estimated by first-principles calculations, was investigated after cold rolling. The ɛ-martensite was found to play a key role in the nucleation of α′-martensite, and at low SFE, ɛ formation is frequent and facilitates nucleation of α′ at individual shear bands, whereas shear band intersections become the dominant nucleation sites for α′ when SFE increases and mechanical twinning becomes frequent.

Nanostructure evolution during low temperature aging of three binary Fe-Cr alloys has been investigated by atom probe tomography. A new method based on radial distribution function (RDF) analysis to quantify the composition wavelength and amplitude of spinodal decomposition is proposed. Wavelengths estimated from RDF have a power-law type evolution and are in reasonable agreement with wavelengths estimated using other more conventional methods. The main advantages of the proposed method are the following: (1) Selecting a box size to generate the frequency diagram, which is known to generate bias in the evaluation of amplitude, is avoided. (2) The determination of amplitude is systematic and utilizes the wavelength evaluated first to subsequently evaluate the amplitude. (3) The RDF is capable of representing very subtle decomposition, which is not possible using frequency diagrams, and thus a proposed theoretical treatment of the experimental RDF creates the possibility to determine amplitude at very early stages of spinodal decomposition.