2. Experimental methods for characterizing precipitation kinetics

This section presents the main characterization methods for describing precipitation kinetics, i.e. the evolution over time of the main characteristics sought. These may be crystallographic (nature of phases formed, habitat planes, nature of interfaces, etc.), chemical (chemical composition of phases, particularly when substitutions are possible between several chemical species), and morphological (average size and size distribution, shape, numerical density, volume fraction, even spatial distribution).

A wide range of characterization techniques are available to the metallurgist, to determine all these parameters at the nanometric scale statically, i.e. after a specific heat treatment. The combination of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques, for structural and morphological information, and tomographic atom probe (TAP) techniques, for chemical information,...