Elsevier, Acta Materialia, 15(59), p. 6124-6132, 2011
DOI: 10.1016/j.actamat.2011.06.025
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We propose a weak condition of compatibility between phases applicable to cases exhibiting full or partial coherence and Widmanstatten microstructure. The condition is applied to the study of Sb2Te3 precipitates in a PbTe matrix in a thermoelectric alloy. The weak condition of compatibility predicts elongated precipitates lying on a cone determined by a transformation stretch tensor. Comparison of this cone with the long directions of precipitates determined by a slice-and-view method of scanning electron microscopy combined with focused ion beam sectioning shows good agreement between theory and experiment. A further study of the morphology of precipitates by the Eshelby method suggests that interfacial energy also plays a role and gives an approximate value of interfacial energy per unit area of 250 dyn cm(-1).