The Crowdion

A crowdion is a (postulated) special low temperature configuration of interstitials in fcc metals.

For making a crowdion, image the row of atoms along a densely packed <111> direction. Now take a number of atoms - say 10 - and "crowd in" one more.

A kind of elongated interstitial along a <111> direction is obtained - a crowdion.

There was a big scientific controversy over the question if crowdions actually exist as a metastable interstitial configuration in the seventies. This controversy has never been finally resolved; however, most researchers in the field believe that it does not exist.

The advocates of crowdions came mainly from the Max-Planck-Institut für Metallforschung; Institut für Physik in Stuttgart; the opponents clusters around the research Center Jülich.

The following schematic drawing illustrates the crowdion configuration (for sake of clarity, the crowdion here is along <100 > in a cubic primitive crystal instead of <111>).

With frame

1.3.3 The larger View and Complications