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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 February 2011
A single model is proposed to describe the cohesive energy and the vacancy jump frequencies as a function of the alloy configuration at the atomic level. The very same model therefore yields both equilibrium and kinetic properties, close and far away from equilibrium. The model is handled at two levels of approximation: Monte Carlo techniques and mean-field type approximations. The model yields equilibrium properties (including the transport coefficients and complex diffusion mechanisms in ordered compounds close to equilibrium) as well as the kinetic path for phase separation, with or without ordering. This allows to identify specific effects of the vacancy diffusion mechanism on the kinetic path for alloy decomposition. Here, we summarise the main results of the above approach.