Abstract
A theory of vacancy formation in disordered alloys has been formulated. It is shown that when the vacancy concentration in an alloy is characterized by a formation energy, the formation energy increases with temperature. In the light of the present work, serious shortcomings in the previous theories have been identified. The present theory satisfactorily describes the observed composition dependence of the vacancy formation energies in various alloys as well as the very small vacancy-solute binding energies observed in many dilute aluminum alloys.