CUBIC-TO-TETRAGONAL (T') TRANSFORMATION IN ZIRCONIA-CONTAINING SYSTEMS

The coexistence of the cubic fluorite and tetragonal phases in rapidly quenched samples was studied in the ZrO2-MO1.5 systems for M = Sc, In, Y, and rare earths (R). Spontaneous transformation from metastable cubic phase was triggered at room temperature by a mechanical force. Isolated tetragonal platelets in the cubic matrix were bounded by {101} habit planes and contained anti-phase boundaries. The tetragonality decreased with stabilizer content and vanished at around 18 mol% for M = Y and R, 23 mol% for M = Sc, and 25 mol% for M = In, all at room temperature. With increasing temperature, the tetragonality initially increased because of anisotropic thermal expansion, then decreased rapidly, after reaching a maximum, as the temperature for the tetragonal-to-cubic transformation was approached. Being a first-order martensitic transformation, the cubic-to-tetragonal transformation is accompanied by a discontinuous change of tetragonality and a hysteresis loop as the temperature or composition passes through the equilibrium value.