Abstract
Self-diffusion in niobium and impurity diffusion of iron, cobalt, nickel and copper in single crystals and polycrystals of niobium have been studied by radio active tracer and electron microprobe methods. These two techniques, the advantages and disadvantages of which are discussed, give results in excellent agreement with each other and allow the establishment of a sequence for the diffusion coefficients D where: These results show that iron, cobalt and nickel diffuse abnormally fast in niobium whereas the latter displays no curvature (on an Arrhenius plot) in self-diffusion. Analysis of all available data for impurity diffusion in niobium shows that the solidus rule proposed by Roux and Vignes (1970) is completely quantitative as regards both activation energies and diffusion coefficients.

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