High resolution electron microscopy reveals that antiphase domain boundaries in β-Ni3Nb have a hexagonal unit cell with lattice parameters ah=aβ and ch=bβ, where aβ and bβ are of the orthogonal β matrix. (See Figure 1.) Some of these boundaries can creep “upstairs” leaving an incoherent area, as shown in region P. When the stepped boundaries meet each other, they do not lose their own character. Our consideration in this work is to estimate the influnce of the natural misfit δ{(ab-aβ)/aβ≠0}. Defining the displacement field at the boundary as a phase modulation Φ(x), following the Frenkel-Kontorova model [2], we consider the boundary area to be made up of a two unit chain, the upper portion of which can move and the lower portion of the β matrix type, assumed to be fixed. (See the schematic pattern in Figure 2(a)).
