Theory of Thermal Diffusion in Dilute Alloys

Abstract

A kinetic analysis is made of the thermal diffusion of a dilute impurity in an fcc metal. Expressions are derived for the impurity current, the steady‐state Soret gradient, and the mean‐atom displacement. It is shown how the ``heats of transport'' appearing in these expressions can be studied experimentally. An extension of the analysis to cases of nonthermal type gradients, in particular a chemical concentration gradient, is briefly considered.