Supersaturated α-iron in vapour-deposited Fe–C thin films

While the conventional Fe–C phase diagram predicts negligible solubility of carbon in α-Fe at room temperature, there are many examples where substantial carbon supersaturations have been reported. Non-equilibrium processing routes, such as physical vapour deposition (PVD), appear to be particularly well suited to generating very high levels of supersaturation. Few descriptions of the stability and microstructure of the supersaturated state …