Abstract
The significance of thermal fluctuations in nucleation in structural first-order phase transitions has been examined. The prototypical case of martensitic transitions has been experimentally investigated by means of acoustic emission techniques. We propose a model based on the mean first-passage time to account for the experimental observations. Our study provides a unified framework to establish the conditions for isothermal and athermal transitions to be observed.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 195701 |
Number of pages | 4 |
Journal | Physical Review Letters |
Volume | 87 |
Issue number | 19 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 24 Oct 2001 |