Retention of a metastable bcc ε-Pu solid solution: ε-Pu(Ti)

A metastable -Pu (bcc) solid solution has been retained to room temperature by rapid quenching of Pu-rich Pu-Ti alloys from the liquid state. Until now, -Pu solid solutions were limited to high temperatures and had not been successfully quenched to room temperature without transformation. The apparatus used to quench the specimens was a modified gun-type splat-cooling unit, capable of producing extremely high cooling rates of from 10⁶ to 10⁸ ° C sec^–1. -Pu(Ti) was retained in the composition region from 20 to more than 45 at.% Ti, and extrapolation of the lattice parameter/composition curve yielded a value of a₀ = 3.53₀ Å for -Pu at 20° C. This modification differs from the -Pu modification derived by extrapolating from high temperature to 20° C by a small valence increase of 0.1. Metastable -Pu (Ti) (fcc) solid solutions were also quenched-in with alloys containing lesser amounts of Ti, and evidence was found to indicate that the was probably a product of -Pu(Ti) solid-state decomposition.