The instability of Paidar-Pope-Vitek locks in L1₂ compounds

Abstract

It is shown that in L1₂ ordered compounds due to the interaction between the superpartials a Paidar-Pope-Vitek (PPV) lock has a higher energy than the planar glissile configuration, when both are in their relaxed equilibrium configuration. Hence PPV locks are intrinsically unstable. Using typical material parameters for Ni₃Al it is shown that generally the driving forces on the cube plane are also not large enough to produce stable PPV locks during deformation.