Robert Fleischer, research professor of geology, is the author of chapters on “Solution Hardening” and “Ion Tracks” in a recent book, Intermetallic Compounds – Volume 3, Progress (John Wiley, Ltd.). Intermetallic compounds are metallic solids in which at least two different types of atoms are arranged each in an ordered way. In the chapter titled “Solution Hardening,” Fleischer describes how atomic defects, called solute, strengthen such solids, and he finds that they work much like foreign atoms in hardening regular metals. In the chapter on “Ion Tracks,” he describes work over the last few years in which tracks have been seen in materials where track formation had been thought to be impossible – including intermetallic compounds, oxide superconductors, and conventional metals. He proposes mechanisms for forming local disorder in these newly recognized track-forming solids.
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