This award will support Professor Juan Sanchez of Columbia University in a research collaboration with Professor Francisco Mejia-Lira of the Universidad Autonoma de San Luis Potosi, Mexico. The investigators plan to continue their previously established research collaboration in the following areas: phase equilibrium in magnetic alloys; surface phenomena in close-packed structures; ordering phenomena in superconducting ceramics; and thermodynamics of small metallic clusters. The main objective of the research is the characterization of the effects of magnetic interactions and of planar defects on alloy phase stability. To accomplish these objectives, several real and model alloy systems will be investigated using the cluster variation method of statistical mechanics from which free energies can be calculated. Because the techniques used by the researchers lie between strictly analytical techniques and very computer intensive techniques (Monte Carlo simulations) they are able to apply them to increasingly complex systems. Consequently, the proposed work has the potential for further application, particularly in the areas of magnetic recording where surface properties of magnetic materials are of critical importance.
