Anisotropic kinetics of solid phase transition from first principles: alpha–omega phase transformation of Zr

Structural inhomogeneity is ubiquitous in solid crystals and plays critical roles in phase nucleation and propagation. Here, we develop a heterogeneous solid-solid phase transition theory for predicting the prevailing heterophase junctions, the metastable states governing microstructure evolution in solids. Using this theory and first-principles pathway sampling simulation, we determine two types of heterophase junctions pertaining to metal α-ω phase transition at different pressures and predict the reversibility of transformation only at low pressures, i.e. below 7 GPa. The low-pressure transformation is dominated by displacive Martensitic mechanism, while the high-pressure one is controlled by the reconstructive mechanism. The mechanism of α-ω phase transition is thus highly pressure-sensitive, for which the traditional homogeneous model fails to explain the experimental observations. The results provide the first atomic-level evidence on the coexistence of two different solid phase transition mechanisms in one system.