The structure of CrAl alloys exhibiting anomalous physical properties

An electron diffraction study is made of a quenched Cr—25 at% Al alloy exhibiting anomalous physical properties. An intensive diffuse scattering, complicated in form, with intensity maxima belonging to the ordered β‐phase (Cr2Al) and the recently observed x‐phase is detected. The diffuse scattering, including intensity maxima from the β‐ und x‐phases, is prone to vanish regularly, namely, the zero‐intensity line is always perpendicular to the reciprocal‐space vector, and this indicates that the scattering arises from transversely polarized “soft” modes. An analysis of the reciprocal lattice of CrAl alloys permits the conclusion that the diffraction picture produced by the x‐phase may be described by the incommensurate ω‐phase known in the literature. The detected structure qualitatively explains anomalies in the physical properties of CrAl alloys. [Russian Text Ignored]